The Other Side of Eternity
by SBSunhawk2
Summary: In the darkest hour of the rebellion everything changes. For not all Imperials are evil. Not all Rebels are good. And not everything is what it initially seems. Sometimes the smallest change can have the greatest impact, especially on the other side of eternity. Rated M to be safe due to violence and in-universe appropriate depictions of slavery, don't own anything
1. Chapter 1

**Zaloriis Deep Space**

**Original Universe - Current**

The darkness of space was pierced by blazing lights, bolts of ion and turbolaser fire crackling. A small disk shaped freighter, similar to the famous YT-1300's but with a centrally located cockpit, twisted and dodged with surprising agility for it's mass, the pursuing TIE's barely able to keep up, let alone pass. Lumbering along behind, and falling further and further behind was the great bulk of an Imperial Star Destroyer, all weapons blazing in an attempt to stop the fleeing craft before it could escape to hyperspace and safety.

It was the darkest of times for the Rebellion, Hoth had fallen just days before, the Alliance leadership was scattered and on the run, and it appeared that the Empire was on the march from victory to victory. It was dark times for the Galaxy, as a resurgent Empire flexed it's might across a thousand worlds, crushing resistance and inspiring terror. Even more so, it was dark times for the small group of independents piloting the somewhat battered light freighter even now seeking to escape the grasp of yet another Imperial entanglement.

"I need that damn course now, Tri." the youthful Twi'lek pilot snapped, even as she twisted the freighter into a half roll and juked to the side with an elan that would have made the cockiest snubfighter jockey envious. "Shields are at 40% and dropping fast."

"I know, I know, gimme a tick, almost got it..." came the response from the young woman seated beside her as she worked furiously on her console. "Scrish and Nik only now got the comp back online."

"Well, if we don't get that course soon it won't matter at all." came the response as the freighter rocked from an impact on the shields. "22% shields. NIK!" she hollered over her shoulder, without taking her eyes from her instruments and the view through the cockpit transparencies.

Up in the dorsal turret of the YT, a massive human gripped the controls of the quad laser cannon and swung the weapon about sending darts of energy at the pursuing TIE's. Already a trail of debris marked the path of the chase as he'd managed to flame an even dozen of the swift little eyeballs, but there were dozens more charging up the rear of the freighter spitting blasts of their own in retaliation.

Meanwhile, a young man who'd barely started shaving was wedged into an access panel with only his feet showing while he worked, not even hearing his name being hollered. It was immaterial, he was already working on fixing a damaged power conduit to the aft shield generator even before the pilot had shouted for him. His toolkit lay in reach as he frantically made repairs.

Down in the ventral turret, an imposing Trandoshan hunched over the controls for the lower quad-cannons, having returned to action after completing repairs to the computer. Scrish was nearly as precise and effective as his human counterpart above, flaming TIE after TIE as they struggled to keep up with the swift freighter. Bolts of energy blazed past, dodged by the expert piloting.

"Fifteen seconds, Alani, almost got it..." Triselka said to the twi'lek pilot as her fingers flew over the board. "And... got it, coordinates input and course laid in... punch it!" she almost shouted in triumph as the navigation solution glowed green on her board.

The twi'lek pilot nodded and immediately slammed the levers activating the hyperdrive forward, accompanied by the welcome whining sound of the drive spooling up.

At that very instant, the pursuing Star Destroyer got in one of those one in a quadrillion shots. A single ion cannon pulse blasted the YT-2000 even as it elongated into the characteristic Cronau flash of hyperspace. A single fraction of a nanosecond earlier and the freighter would have been a powerless hulk drifting in space, easy pickings for the Imperials. A fraction of a nanosecond later and the shot would have been wasted as the freighter would have been long gone into the safety of the hyper lanes.

Instead, the shot hit precisely at the very split nanosecond that the hyperdrive peaked, the very nanosecond where the powerful energies that enabled FTL travel were surging and at their most chaotic. And in that nanosecond, the interplay of ions and electronics produced bizarre effects that would have far-reaching consequences.

Instead of the typical streaking star scape that was normal for traveling through hyperspace the view from the cockpit was insane. The streaks tumbling about themselves in random fractal patterns with no apparent rhyme or reason even as all power was lost with the failure of the main reactor. The powerful surge had managed to knock everybody on board unconscious, even as gravity and lights failed, so none of the crew actually witnessed the chaotic light show.

Moments later, the battered YT-2000 was drifting, tumbling madly, in space once more mere kilometers from where she had entered hyperspace. Only there were no TIE's present, no pursuing Star Destroyer... nothing.

Several minutes passed, before the crew of the ship slowly regained consciousness, groggy and sore from the wild transit, only to find themselves drifting helplessly. Automatic systems had already brought the reactor back online, but the ship was still tumbling and adrift, as the drives were completely offline.

"Sithspit, what happened?" Alani managed to croak out as she tried to bring up the RCS system to stabilize the freighter with a marked lack of success, simultaneously trying to ignore the crazy tumbling view out the transparencies.

Triselka was shaking her head, trying to clear it, as she focused on her softly glowing board. "No clue, most systems are still offline, red across the board." she reported, tried to make sense of the error codes and find something that was still working.

From behind could be heard a series of thumps, then the cockpit door was opened by the hulking Dosh. "Nik is still passed out, Jaond is taking care of him, reactor is online and stable, have the navcomp rebooting and the droids are also coming back up. But I think the hyperdrive is completely fried." he said softly, as even he looked rather haggard from whatever it was that had happened. "No TIE's around, but we're spinning so bad I got sick looking out. Want drives or sensors up first?"

"Get the sensors up first, RCS is finally starting to respond." Alani responded, as the sickening spin started to abate under her deft hand. "First, we gotta figure out what is going on, then we can figure out where to go from there."

"Got it." was all the Dosh said, turning and heading back through the hatch to start making what repairs he could from inside the small souped up freighter.

* * *

_Two years before..._

_Mos Espa, Tattooine_

The cantina was typical, dark, smelly, crowded and loud. Music more notable for it's volume than any actual rhythm or beat pumped through the air, while patrons crowded about. The crowd was rather rough, moisture farmers in the city for a day, roughnecks and goons for the various criminal outfits, smugglers, scum; all in all just the typical Tattooine crowd.

In one alcove of the cantina sat a fat human, with several Gamorreans and other thugs surrounding him and a rather pretty, in a cute sort of way, young human slave girl at his feet, dressed only in a single winding strip of nearly transparent fabric that concealed absolutely nothing, including the barely fading bruises and contusions of her last beating. The most substantial object on her was the heavy metallic collar about her neck that was fastened to a plain chain leash and gripped by the fat man in a harsh grip as he displayed his 'prize' to the scum of the galaxy.

Into the cantina came a hulking Dosh and a truly massively built human, the Dosh carrying a heavy case in one hand as if it weighed nothing while the human appeared to be acting as simple muscle, a heavy blaster rifle slung over his shoulder and a cold expression on his scarred face that intimidated anybody who dared look his way. Sensing danger, the other patrons of the cantina got out of the pairs way quite quickly as they walked towards the alcove with purposeful steps.

"You Brind?" the Dosh said shortly as he came to a halt standing front of the lounging human gang boss and his flunkies, his expression neutral and business like while the massive human beside him simply glowered and looked intimidating.

"Maybe." came the sarcastic response from the fat man as he tried to exert his own status in the underworld by being difficult. Beside him the thugs glowered balefully at the pair in an attempt to counter-intimidate the massive human while the slave girl just cowered on the filthy floor, not even daring to look up.

"Then maybe gots a delivery fer ya." Scrish replied coldly, sounding rather impatient and annoyed while Jaond simply continued glaring as if he were unaffected by the thugs trying to look threatening. "If ya aint Brind, aint got no delivery and yer wasting my time." he continued in the same chill tone, making it clear through his voice alone that that was a very bad idea.

"Then yeah, ya got the chips?" came the response after a moment, the fat gangster tugging on the chain leash in a transparent attempt to maintain his image as a harsh and cruel man causing the girl to whimper slightly as she was pulled closer to the stinking mass of lard.

"Yeah, if ya got the creds ta pay fer 'em." Scrish answered offhandedly, hoisting the case and slamming it down on the table, causing it to groan alarmingly and highlighting just how heavy the case was and thus, indirectly, showing just how powerful the Dosh himself was.

"Lemme see 'em first." the gangster blustered, leaning forward slightly, a light of greed in his beady eyes.

Suddenly the massive human's eyes narrowed, as they focused on the girl for a moment rather than the thugs, and the blaster swung around in a smooth arc that narrowly avoiding the Dosh. Jaond suddenly opened fire, the first shot catching the fat human right in the stomach before the gangster could do more than widen his eyes or his guards could even think about reacting, then the hulking soldier shifted his aim with cold, calculating precision to fire at the gangsters guards. The thugs were caught flat-footed by the sudden explosion of violence, as was the Dosh who seemed just as surprised as everybody else as shot after unerringly lethal shot barked out, the human handling the heavy blaster like it were a feather-light toy as he stepped forward, eyes blazing with rage yet under total and complete control.

"Sithspit, JAOND!" the Dosh hollered, hastily yanking his own pistol out of it's holster as the thugs started returning fire wildly missing wide as they continued to go down under the furious onslaught. That very fury, and the surprise of it all, acted as nearly perfect armor for the massive human and it was a matter of only seconds before the only three left breathing in the alcove were the slave girl, the Dosh, and the murderous soldier. Slinging his blaster, Jaond snapped the chain connected to the slave's collar with one massive hand before scooping the girl over one shoulder as if she weighed nothing. His other hand dipped into a pouch at his belt and drew out a small sphere with a glowing light at the top.

"Cantina is CLOSED." the human yelled as he stepped out of the alcove, hurling the sphere into the middle of the crowd and causing a total panic as patrons stampeded for the exits. When the Dosh made to follow, the human just grabbed him as well and shook his head, before heading for a side exit. "Got plenty time, set for a full two minutes." he said tersely, then shifted the terrified girl on his shoulder and strode along without missing a step.

"Damnit, Jaond, we'd not even gotten paid yet! What were you thinking?" Scrish followed in the wake of Jaond, muttering now to himself as he massive human forged steadily ahead. "Look, before you start shooting ASK ME FIRST." he continued almost plaintively.

Jaond just grunted and picked up the pace, almost running now towards the isolated landing bay where the Firebird was landed. Behind them a sudden blast of smoke erupted from the cantina as the smoke grenade cunningly disguised in the casing for a thermal detonator went off. Thugs and gangsters milled about, unsure about what was going on in their favored little hellhole.

"Sithspit, Jaond, if you wanted a girl there's plenty..." the Dosh cut off as the Human suddenly stopped and turned, glaring murderously at him. "Fine, fine, do it your way." he said in a placating tone, holding his clawed hands up and shaking his reptilian head. "But warn me next time, will you?"

Jaond only grunted in response and went back to running, carrying Triselka over his shoulder to the _Firebird_ and freedom.

* * *

_Unidentified Planet_

_18 months before..._

It was dark and quiet, a faint breeze blowing between the steel walls and beams of the small Imperial outpost out in the middle of the wilderness on this backwater world. The watchtowers were fully manned, but this base was so far out in the middle of nowhere that the garrison was more concerned with staying awake than with actually bothering to do much else. Today, that inattention to their duties would prove fatal.

Four figures slipped through the Stygian darkness, moving from shadow to shadow towards the central bunker that led down to the actual base itself. A twi'lek, two humans, and a Dosh made for an unlikely team, but in the quiet of the night they were almost as silent as ghosts. Two patrolling sentries had already paid for their boredom and inattention with their lives, and the clock was ticking fast on the operation.

The smaller of the two humans slipped next to the maglocked service hatch and slipped out a tiny toolkit and popped open the lock assembly itself and hooked up her own slicing gear in order to accomplish her role in this little operation. Meanwhile the others settled down and kept watch for any surprises in the night, blasters held lightly at the ready while keeping to the darkest shadows and behind hard cover to avoid being spotted by the wall guards.

"Got it." whispered Triselka in a suppressed undertone, she was barely recognizable as the young slave girl of just six months before. Once she had accepted that she was free and the tracking capsule removed she had proven to have a natural aptitude with computers and security systems that led to her joining the team, not as just a rescued waif but as a full up valued member of the squad. Her growing knack for security systems had led to this particular little mission and her growing confidence in herself and her teammates made it possible.

The armored hatch slid open smoothly after remarkably little time and after Triselka gathered up her tools the foursome slipped silently inside. After the hatch closed all was silent outside once more. No evidence remained to indicate that anybody had used the service hatch.

Inside the dreary monotony of Imperial gray was broken only by the Aurebesh markings on the walls as the foursome ghosted through the corridors, heading deeper and deeper into the base. This far inside there was almost no security as the Imperials were confident that their perimeter would keep out any intruders. This late at night there was no traffic, no movement, nothing. The base was a ghost town yet still the strike team moved cautiously rather than take any unnecessary risks.

Deeper they went, down level after level using the stairwells rather than the turboshafts. Finally they reached their goal, coming upon the entrance hatch to the reactor that powered the entire complex from it's home nestled deep beneath the central bunker.

"You take the left, I've got the right" murmured Jaond to Scrish, getting a silent nod in response before the pair tumbled around the corner, catching the two drowsing sentries at the hatch by surprise and cutting them down before they could raise the alarm with lethally accurate blaster fire.

Without missing a beat Triselka charged forward, Alani, Scrish and Jaond at her heels. Her tools came out and again she worked her slicing magic on the console beside the hatch. It was a matter of moments only before the armored slab of solid durasteel groaned and slid open.

Heading inside, Triselka and Alani split up, heading to two separate consoles and busily punching in codes. First, they overrode the standard alarms, setting them for silent operation, then they cut off the remote monitoring from the main control room and disabled the primary control links, then finally they set the reactor to overload itself, thus destroying the base.

With their mission accomplished, the four withdrew, now even more under a time limit as they only had so long before the reactor blew. Luckily they met no more guards within the base as they headed for the same service hatch they'd used for entry. Once outside, Triselka hotwired one of the utility speeders sitting in the motor pool, the four commandos piling in. With Alani at the controls, all pretense of subtlety went out the window as she floored it, a single shot from Jaond's blaster rifle frying the main gate controls and bringing the durasteel obstacle down, while Scrish and Triselka peppered the alarmed guards with fire of their own even as they screamed out into the night.

Behind them a massive explosion split the night, gouts of flame blasting out of the firing slits and ventilation grills of the bunker as the reactors buried underground overloaded and went critical, annihilating the small base in a blaze of fiery glory.

* * *

_Unidentified System_  
_Six months before..._

"Got it! Scanning for targets." came the call from the pilots seat, as Alani sent the YT-2000 into another corkscrewing spin, the newly installed fixed quad autoblasters spitting blue darts of death at the swirling TIE's while streams of larger blue-white bolts ripped into the formation from the dual turrets, as the _Firebird _lived up to her name and blazed death to the Imperial pilots who dared try and keep her from her target.

The target was a small lumbering convoy of Imperial Bulk Freighters, and a full squadron of Rebel snubfighters followed in the souped up freighters wake, boring through the futile defenses of the squadron of TIE's that had launched from a concealed escort carrier hidden within the convoy like white hot knives through butter. More X-Wings were making runs on the lone _Victory-I _class Star Destroyer that was the unfortunate convoys main escort forcing the lumbering giant to concentrate on defending itself rather than it's charges.

The YT-2000 settled down to make its attack run, the concussion missile launchers locked onto the lead freighter and then Alani fired, then fired again, while at the same time the turret guns switched from popping the few remaining eyeballs and started playing over a second freighter target. This raid was to destroy the convoy rather than capture it and so maximum force was being used.

Larger explosions split the darkness of space as the massive bulk freighters started to explode under the onslaught. Too deep within the gravity well to simply hyper out, with their escorts destroyed the freighters were nothing but target practice for the rampaging Rebel forces.

* * *

_Zaloriis System_

_Alternate Universe - Current_

"Should have passive's up in a moment, Alani" came the call from Nik, who'd finally woken up from the nasty shock he'd gotten while in the access way. "Now... showing green here, how about up there?" he called, pulling his head out of the access panel and wiping his hands on a convenient rag.

"Got it, scanning..." came the response from the cockpit, as Triselka started looking over the data. "Well, looks like the same system, but the TIE's are nowhere in sight... waitasecond... damnit, got an ISD in system, don't think they have us on their scope though, it's pretty far off."

"How long were we out?" Alani wondered out loud as she finally got the tumbling fully smoothed out with the battered RCS's assistance, over half of the thrusters still refusing to respond.

"According to what I can tell, less than a minute at most but can't be sure." came the baffled response. "DAMNIT, we got spotted, the ISD just changed course and is heading this way, straight at us. NIK, get those engines up NOW" Triselka hollered, even as Alani slumped in her seat, a defeated expression on her face as her lekku drooped behind her.

"No use, Tri, hyperdrive is fried according to the readouts." the Twi'lek said. "We're not going anywhere even if we can get the sublights working. We're completely and totally screwed."

Triselka slumped herself, staring at the readouts with an equally defeated expression on her face but not saying a word. Behind her, Nik, Scrish and Jaond squeezed into the cockpit, the turrets were off line, drives were offline, so morbid curiosity drew them to where they could watch their doom bear down on them.

The battered freighter continued to drift, most of it's systems offline from the ion surge, as the dagger shape of the Imperial Star Destroyer closed once more. As it approached, looming larger and larger in the view port, it started launching snubfighters from it's ventral bays.

Alani and Triselka both blinked as the fighters closed with the _Firebird_. While they were the familiar dark gray and black of Imperial designs, they weren't TIE's... two squadrons of Incom T-65 X-Wings in full Imperial markings swept towards the battered freighter...

"OK... something is definitely really weird here..." Alani said, eyes wide in surprise as she managed to scrape her jaw off the deck, something which none of the rest of the crew had yet managed in their surprise.


	2. Chapter 2

_**The Other Side of Eternity  
Chapter Two**_

_Zaloriis System – Alternate Universe  
Now..._

The main bridge of the massive star destroyer was an orderly if rather busy place. The sunken crew pits were laid out efficiently with easy access from the lower level lifts and to the bridge escape pods. The walkway for senior officers had discretely placed consoles for their use and practical hand rails for safety. While the crew had conformable chairs that were considered to be highly comfortable, the officers stood at their stations. It was a tradition within the Imperial Navy that a significant part of an officer's duty was to inspire their subordinates by example, to be seen even during times of danger and stress as standing to their duties unafraid and unbowed. Therefore, the bridge walkway was intended so that at any time any of the bridge crew could look up and see their officers at their stations.

It was also a rather convenient place for said senior officers to receive reports from their subordinates without having to traipse about between the bridge and the various bridge level conference rooms. A slender Rodian officer wearing the insignia on his shoulder of the Intelligence Corps was doing just that, a dataslate tucked under one arm as he reported to the warship's commanding officer.

"Initial detection of the unknown vessel was via long-range passive scans detecting a chaotic build-up of Cronau radiation. No hyperwake was detected prior to emergence, diagnostic checks show all sensors were operating within acceptable parameters thus we are ruling out equipment failure at this time pending further investigation. Upon detection we diverted for interception of the contact." he spoke calmly, professionally.

"Any more details on the unknown, Lieutenant?" asked one of the other officers, a short and rather stout human male with the tabs of the gunnery section on his uniform.

"It's a heavily modified _YT-2000_, Sir, initial scans are showing two turreted quad lasers, four forward fixed autoblasters and four concussion missile tubes for armament, hull plating appears to be upgraded to military grade materials of unknown manufacture. There are no emissions of any sort from the contact, but indications are that the reactor is operational due to neutrino counts. RCS thrusters have been observed in operation but at a low apparent efficiency, we believe this is due to battle damage at this time. We have not received any response to our communication requests however there is extremely heavy carbon scoring on the hull and the main antenna array appears to have been sheared off. Scans indicate no active hyperdrive unit, it is rather likely that said unit is either offline or destroyed." he paused in his report, consulting his dataslate for a moment, then continued. "At this time there has been no hostile activity from the craft, however it is an 87% match to the _Firebird_, which was believed to have been used to carry out the bio-toxin attack on Neris IV and surrounding areas. However current intelligence places that vessel in a different sector." the young Rodian officer concluded, settling the dataslate back underneath his arm and stiffening back to proper attention.

"Very well then bring the craft on board in boat bay two and institute full bio-containment protocols." came the calm voice of the tall human woman wearing the Imperial gray uniform with the insignia of the ship's captain. "Have Alpha Company meet the craft and give Major Forran the same data on the unknown vessel, Lieutenant."

"Yes, Ma'am." came the crisp response accompanied by an even crisper salute before the young Rodian rotated on his heel and marched from the bridge as if he were on parade, much to the quiet amusement of his seniors who could remember when they were in the exact same position.

The _Imperial-II_ Class Star Destroyer _HIMS Impetuous_hung in space mere kilometers from the derelict freighter with her tractors already firmly locked on. Even as the Captain watched the beams drew the small craft closer and beneath the pointed prow of the powerful warship, causing it to drop out of her view as they guided it to a landing in the secondary shuttle bay.

"Comms, have we received a response from Sector Command yet?" Captain Nalla then asked, hands still clasped lightly behind her back as she turned to look down at the communications section from the command walk.

"Nothing beyond the initial standby request, Ma'am. We are holding the channel open." came the crisp response from one of the ratings manning his station.

"Good. Tactical?" Nalla continued, turning to the other side of the bridge with the same calm tone.

"Nothing on scope beyond that freighter, Ma'am. Just got a report from Commander Thrak that the fault in the number four fire control computer has been isolated and repairs are expected to take about an hour, appears to be a failed secondary data relay and not something more serious." came the immediate report as the bridge crew was quite well accustomed to their captain's vagaries and methods.

"Excellent, give my thanks to the Commander." came the reply from the Captain, as the woman's stern visage cracked momentarily into a slight, yet sincere, smile. She completed another circuit, glancing over at a small monitor as the freighter was secured in the small secondary bay, nodding slightly in approval as she noted the distinctive details showing just how precisely the bio-containment protocols had been enforced.

"Ma'am, status change, inbound hyperwake detected at twenty point eight relative horizontal, positive fourteen relative vertical. Estimate three zero contacts exiting hyper in five minutes at marked locus." came the call from Tactical.

"Designate contacts Raid Four and get me an ID as soon as they transition. Sound action stations and bring the ship to combat readiness" came the immediate response from Captain Nalla.

Even as she was speaking, loud klaxons rang to life. "All hands! BATTLE STATIONS!" and the calm bustle of the bridge was replaced with intense concentration, the view outside abruptly cut off as massive armored shutters slammed shut moments before holodisplays activated, giving the same imagery overlaid with tactical data. There had been a move in recent years to make the shutters permanent and rely on the holo displays exclusively but most captains preferred being able to see the universe for themselves outside of combat and that view so far prevailed.

On the command walk itself additional stanchions extended, with handles deployed for ease of gripping in the event of a heavy jolt. While the senior officers didn't have the comfortable chairs of their juniors and were expected to remain on their feet even under the heaviest of fire there were safety considerations as well and the Imperial Fleet could be quite practical about such things.

A massive suspended holo display sprang to life at the front of the command walk, giving a full three dimensional tactical overlay for the Captain's use. It was in most respects simply a repeater display of the main tactical plot but it also contained displays from Damage Control Central and Main Engineering. The display was currently in an expanded view, showing the lurid red indicators of an unknown hyperwake signature rapidly approaching.

Within minutes, as the bridge crew settled into their action stations routines at the razor's edge of readiness, the incoming icons blinked and shifted, first to the yellows of unknown contacts, then back to a lurid red indicating hostiles.

"Emergence, Ma'am. CIC has the preliminary ident as one _Venator_, four _Recusant _class destroyers, six _Munificent_ frigates, 4 _Marauder _corvettes, a single _Acclamator I_and the rest appear to be various transports. They are coming right across our vector at two point six. They are not squawking IFF on any approved channel. CIC has classified Raid Four as a rebel light terror fleet. Their shields are not yet coming up, Ma'am." came the rapid yet surprisingly calm report from the Tactical section.

Captain Nalla nodded, a slight smile crossing her lips. "Interesting, they didn't expect us to be here... Launch all snubfighters. Commander Wissix, concentrate fire on the _Venator_, the rebels cannot have many of those left, then shift fire to the _Acclamator_, designate the _Venator_ as Alpha and the _Acclamator_as Beta." even as she spoke the main holodisplay shifted to the more focused tactical view used for single ship combat.

Seconds later the mighty warship was fully engaged as heavy turbolaser batteries thundered forth their fire at the foe sending bolts of ravening energy spearing across the void. From the ventral launch bays spilled more snubfighters, all Incom T-65B X-Wings, which immediately set their S-Foils to attack position and screamed towards their designated targets in professionally tight attack formations.

The first broadside from _Impetuous_ slammed into the enemy _Venator_ which arrogantly displayed the sinister red emblem of the traitorous Alliance to Restore the Republic even before the flight deck could be opened or the shields fully raised. The enemy squadron was badly surprised, hypering in literally within optimum range of the Star Destroyers guns and in the very worst possible firing arc, directly ahead. This was the sort of situation every _Imperial-II_commander dreamed of but few ever got to experience. A technically superior force caught with its pants down around its collective ankles. It was the sort of situation that led to commendations and enhanced reputations and even in the highly professional Imperial Navy careerism always had its importance.

Within moments the massive _Venator_ was a flaming ruin that was already completely out of control, and the _Impetuous_ shifted targets to the next most critical target. The ancient _Acclamator_ was even then returning fire while desperately waiting for its hyper generators to spool back up. Heavy turbolaser fire splattered across the heavy multilayer shields of the _Imperial-II_ but didn't manage to penetrate. On the Imperial warship her unengaged batteries were already firing upon the lesser ships of the enemy attack force even as the _Acclamator_ was savaged. The X-Wings struck savagely and effectively as the loss of the Rebel formations primary fighter carrier before it could even launch had rendered the rest even more vulnerable to the powerful snubfighter than normal with the snubfighter jockeys taking full and brutal advantage of the situation.

_Impetuous _ barely had to maneuver at all as the rebel force had obligingly left hyper right into her primary firing arc and weren't moving nearly fast enough to get out of it in anything even vaguely resembling a timely manner. The only saving grace was that for all of her power _Impetuous_ still only had so many turbolaser batteries to deploy against them. Moreover, the majority of her firepower was directed towards the exceptionally tough _Acclamator I_that was now the largest and most powerful of the threats facing her.

Space flamed and burned as thundering broadsides were exchanged at a brutal rate. At points it almost seemed as if one could walk from the Impetuous to the enemy ships hopping from turbolaser bolt to turbolaser bolt. But for all of its fury, or perhaps because of its fury, it didn't last particularly long. The rebel fleet started hypering away as soon as their generators finished cycling, escaping the inadvertent ambush into the safety of hyperspace. They left behind the _Venator_, two _Munificent_'s and all four _Marauder_'s as they were reduced to drifting shattered hulks along with a dozen of the lighter transports that had fallen to the snubfighter squadrons. Losses on the Imperial side were relatively light. Six X-Wings had been lost to desperate Rebel fire, and the Imperial Star Destroyer had suffered comparatively minor damage with only one heavy turbolaser turret temporarily put out of action and minor armor damage along the port flank from a lucky burn through of the shields in the last moments of the action.

There is nothing in battle more devastating that overconfidence. The Rebel force had known, not thought, but known what the Star Destroyer's assigned patrol route was and had no doubt that they could exploit it to their advantage. For if the _Impetuous_had been where she was supposed to have been there would have been little to no chance of the ISD intercepting the formation before it got into range of the planet and landed it's embarked droid invasion forces and almost definitely no chance of catching the small fleet with its collective pants down. But battles aren't decided based on what should have been, they are decided based on what was. The Rebel's had planned well, but luck and the Force were not on their side and instead of a brutal strike against a small planet spreading fear and terror in a previously safe sector they were limping home with their figurative tails between their legs.

* * *

_Firebird_

_Boat Bay 2, HIMS Impetuous, Present_

The boat bay was fairly empty, all of the portable equipment having been stowed away in accordance with bio-containment procedures to reduce the need for decontamination if there proved to indeed be a biological weapon threat. But it wasn't completely empty at all as a full company of armored Imperial Marines surrounded the _YT-2000_ parked rather precisely in the very center of the bay by the skilled tractor operators.

Near the main ramp of the freighter a single squad of armored figures hunkered down behind blast shields, a magnetic cable had been secured to the manual external release for the ramp and this squad, half-jokingly referred to as the 'suicide squad' due to their exposed position if it turned out to be a hostile vessel, were waiting for the signal to initiate a boarding operation. Nerves were tense as the signal was slow in coming, primarily due to the battle that was raging outside that transmitted vibrations through the deck.

Finally it came and was as anticlimactic as the 'suicide squad' could wish for. The magnetic cable was pulled, the release lever went with it and the ramp extended downward with a hiss of hydraulics. No charging hordes of rampaging battle droids. No billowing clouds of venomous toxins. Nothing. A single gesture from an armored figure and a small spider-like droid clambered up the ramp sensors probing and transmitting its take down a thin armored micro-cable back to the waiting troopers.

On board the _Firebird_ the five Rebels were hunkered down, blasters at the ready for what they all knew would be their last stand. Alani gripped a Blastech DL-44 as did Triselka beside her while Jaond was settled in a covered position with a light repeating blaster ready. Scrish and Nik were waiting down another corridor, the Dosh armed with another light repeating blaster while the young human nervously gripped a blaster rifle in shaking hands.

Alani was rather annoyed with herself, adding the autoblasters had seemed like a great idea even if they took up the volume that had been used for the internal smuggling compartments. Now she wished they still had them instead. She glanced around rechecking the positions of her team. It may have been hopeless, they may be totally screwed, but by the Force they would take as many stormtroopers down with them as they could.

The ramp had been lowered from the external controls. Surprisingly, however, there had been no idiot charge of Stormtroopers into their prepared fields of fire. That, combined with the fact that whoever commanded this ship had the sense to park them in an otherwise empty bay instead of one with a nice convenient Lambda parked nearby, didn't bode well for how competent the opposition was. But the rebel commando team at least took comfort in knowing that in order to take them out the Imperials would have to come to them.

Suddenly, finally, movement. A small spidery droid skittered up the ramp with prominent sensors deployed and scanning. Alani blinked a bit in surprise, sending in a droid first was something SpecForce would do and wasn't Imperial doctrine at all. She pondered the situation shifting a little behind the shifted crate she was using for cover, before Triselka squeezed off a single shot, hitting the little recon droid right in the body, sending sparks flying as it was destroyed.

"Well, we know there's something on board there." commented the armored form of Major (although his 'real' rank was Captain there could be only one Captain on a warship) Forran to his second in command. The sound of the blaster shot and the loss of signal from the reconnaissance droid had been rather obvious after all.

First Lieutenant Nishrooka nodded and growled a response in his native Shyriiwook, the hulking Wookie looking rather uncomfortable in the confining armored environmental suit he wore instead of the more 'standard' Marine Armor.

"I know..." Forran cut off as the scantech forwarded the scan data results to the officers, the wookie beside him grunting a bit, sounding slightly surprised. "A twi'lek and a dosh hooked up with rebels?" he mused, one eyebrow climbing towards his hairline. "That... is unusual to say the least."

"Maybe they aren't really rebels, Sir, and just smugglers or privateers?" piped up the Rodian naval lieutenant standing with the other officers behind a discrete blast screen. His own dataslate was displaying the same take from the droid. "I think that was a DL-44 shot, and rebels tend to use Czerka blasters. The big Blastech's are more popular among independents."

"Possibly, Lt. Hido, possibly... And they aren't even wearing suits which makes this almost too easy." Forran said before he nodded to Nishrooka, who raised his voice and roared a command to his platoon. Four gray and black armored figures moved up to flank the ramp while the rest of the platoon remained deployed in their defensive positions providing over watch in case things went pear shaped, as they so often did in the life of a Marine.

"Did you hear that?" Triselka said, as the sound of a Wookie roaring echoed up into the ship.

"What is a Wookie doing giving commands on board a Star Destroyer?" Alani replied, straightening slightly and looking puzzled. "Or at least that sounded like a command, what the devil did he mean by..."

She was cut rather abruptly off when a series of gas grenades were thrown up into the open well of the ramp, the grenadiers expertly angling their throws so as to bounce the grenades towards where the recon droid had spotted the targets. Wisps of smoke curled into view as they detonated, and moments later the remainder of the platoon charged up the ramp. By the time the Marines had entered what had until moments earlier been the kill zone of a team of Rebel operatives, everything was quiet apart from the clattering of armored boots and the thin hissing of the knockout gas grenades.

* * *

_Bridge_

_HIMS Impetuous, Present_

"All five are still passed out, Ma'am, we have them in the brig under observation." Lt Hido reported to Captain Nalla on the bridge. "Scan teams are working over the interior of the freighter right now, as of last report no sign of any bio or chem weaponry on board, although Chief Ricks said that the arsenal on board was, in his words 'absolutely incredible', apparently there was even a number of antique slug-throwers in one of the cabins including a Tusken rifle."

"Any indications if they were working with the rebels or not?" Nalla's voice was as calm as could be, while listening to the reports and watching as shuttles moved amongst the debris and wreckage of the recently fought battle.

"Possibly, Ma'am, but there are some strange discrepancies and anomalies. For one thing, while we found materials marked with rebel insignia, there were two non-humans in the crew, including a Twi'lek female who was not collared. We have a team going through their computers right now, it looks like they managed to dump their astrogation data but not much else. Only thing I can report for certain is that unless there is some snubfighter project I'm not aware of, what they have tagged in their warbook as the 'standard' Imperial fighter doesn't exist, yet they have large amounts of gun-camera footage of shooting down this unknown craft, which looks like somebody took a cockpit, stuck two solar wings on it, slapped engines in the back and lasers on the front and called it a fighter."

"Misinformation?"

"Impossible to be certain, Ma'am, especially without questioning the prisoners." the Rodian replied.

"Very well, report back when you have more information, Lt." Nalla said, nodding briefly in dismissal as she turned her attention back to the cleanup of the battle's aftermath, all the while mentally composing her next report.

"Aye aye, Ma'am." Hido replied before turning on his heel once more and heading back down to the hangar.


	3. Chapter 3

_**The Other Side of Eternity  
Chapter Three**_

_Interlude_

_Look, you know those dancing girls that you see at some clubs? And those pictures from Rebel territory of slave girls? Those flimsy outfits that show everything? Lemme tell you, those two? Didn't need THAT to cause great discomfort in the male populace. And that was before they used their knees._

_Bridge - HIMS Impetuous_  
_Now..._

The bridge was quiet once more. The bridge crew were hard at work at their stations monitoring developments and the operation of the massive star destroyer. Meanwhile up on the officer's walkway the ship's senior officers were quietly conferring with each holding their own dataslate and making copious notes.

"Overall, Ma'am, the ship is in good condition. Crew response time to battle stations showed a slight improvement from our last drill series. The hyperwake detector upgrades functioned within expected parameters and there were no major system or personnel failures. I will have a commendation list for your approval by second watch tomorrow." Commander Llor, the short almost gnome-like human XO of _HIMS Impetuous_ reported.

"Understood." answered Captain Nalla with a faint smile. "Expedite the commendations list if you could, please."

"Certainly, Ma'am." Llor responded, stiffening a bit to attention from his already almost robotic version of 'at ease', then again he was almost half cybernetic thanks to severe injuries incurred in combat operations.

Nalla nodded in response, then cocked an eyebrow silently at the duros chief medical officer in silent inquiry. The two had served together for so long that no words were really needed between them.

"Final casualty count is at 3 dead, 18 seriously injured and still in the medbay, 32 treated and released. All three fatalities were from the 8279th Starfighter Squadron, most of the injured were from number 3 turret." a pause as Surgeon-Commander Whesti-ko lowered his dataslate, the slender Duros medico finishing his report from memory. "We do not think we will lose any of the injured still in medbay, although five of them will require transfer to a fleet hospital."

"Thank you, Doctor." Captain Nalla replied gravely. "Forward the names of the deceased to my terminal."

"Certainly, Sir." came the expected response, the duros doctor quickly excusing himself to return to his post in medical.

"Any thoughts on how the 8279th came to lose so many pilots, Commander?" the captain turned to a tall human.

"We are still making certain, but as of right now it appears to be a case of simple bad luck. CIC tracks show that the lost pilots were lining up for an attack run on one of the _Marauder's _when the second _Munificent_ fired it's main battery and got lucky. It was an off-axis shot but well within the beam-traverse limits of the mount." came the reply from Commander Tors, the ships CSG.

"Very well, once you have a final assessment forward it to me please. And tell your people good flying." Nalla said with a decisive nod.

"Thank you, Ma'am, will let them know." Tors responded crisply.

"Commander Maklin?" she then prompted, turning her attention to the chief tactical officer.

The somewhat tubby officer glanced one last time at his dataslate before tucking it away. In an extremely cultured deep core accent he spoke from memory. "Main turret targeting efficiencies were within acceptable ranges as per regulation, Ma'am. However in addition to the hit on Number Three turret there were several targeting error's involving the broadside trench mounts, additional training scenarios are being developed to deal with this deficiency. While these errors did not reduce efficiency below Fleet acceptable targets an additional two point three percent effective fire could have been possible leading to two additional freighter kills."

Captain Nalla swallowed a smile at that "I doubt Fleet will take your E away for that, Commander." she said, the fussy perfectionist always bringing out a sense of fond amusement in his CO. "Send the drill scenarios to Commander Llor for approval."

Maklin almost snapped his heels together as he responded with a crisp "Aye Aye, Ma'am." and a perfect regulation salute to boot.

"Engineering status, Commander Thrak?" Nalla turned to the hulking Cathar engineer.

"Repairs are progressing well, Ma'am." Thrak replied. "However we'll need a yard to complete repairs to Number Three Turret, the hit fused the rotation ring itself." he said simply, as the ship had gotten off extremely lightly there wasn't much for him to report.

"I see." Nalla said with a slight grimace, but knew as well as the Cathar did that attempting to repair a shattered turret ring without external support was extremely risky, especially with the heavy-duty turrets used on star destroyers. "I'll endorse the repair survey report once it's completed."

"Will be at your terminal by the time you get there, Ma'am." the Cathar replied with a stiff nod of his felinoid head.

"Lt. Cmdr Jaksan?" she inquired, turning to the astrogation officer.

"Astro is buttoned up and ready, Ma'am. We have been reviewing the sensor logs from when the derelict arrived and can confirm, however, that there was no hyperwake present. Moreover there are some signs of possible hyperspace instability at the locus of its arrival. Tactical's screens wouldn't show it but the hyperwake of the rebel force was perturbed as it passed the locus, giving us indications of an approximately 2.2 light second anomalous spherical formation in hyperspace. We have marked the charts with the anomaly and are continuing investigation. Request permission to use probe droids to attempt to map the exact configuration of the anomaly, Ma'am."

"Granted, write up the data for transmission to sector." Nala decided after a moment. Star destroyers normally wouldn't be engaged in such, but if a new navigational hazard was forming it was incumbent upon them to get it charted properly.

"Lt Hido?" she turned to the junior-most of the officers present. As an ISD on independent patrol, there was rarely more than a single dedicated Intel officer on hand.

"Yes, Ma'am. We have confirmed that this was a terror raid, scans indicate that the destroyed freighters were bio-weapon platforms. Analysis indicates that the intention was to land the Acclamator, disgorge terror droids to slaughter defense forces, and release the bio-toxins from the freighters with the intent of sterilizing the planet." he paused, looking about grimly.

"If we hadn't diverted this would have been the sixth time in the last three months that a rebel force was able to take advantage of apparent knowledge of our sector patrol routes and timetables to slip a terror force onto a planet." noted Lt Hido after consulting his slate. "Our patrol route had just been changed two weeks ago so it is highly unlikely it was simply pattern observation or signal intelligence."

"So an inside source then." Captain Nalla said grimly. The other officers gathered around had similar expressions on their faces. "Wouldn't be the first time those bastards subverted somebody. Forward the data to sector, Lieutenant."

"Aye, ma'am." Hido replied with a nod, making a note on his slate. "Also, we are prepared to begin interrogations of the personnel from the derelict freighter we recovered."

"Excellent, keep me informed." Nalla said with a slight nod. "I'll be expecting all of you for the full formal AAR tomorrow, we are expecting reinforcements shortly and will maintain position until relieved."

* * *

_Brig -HIMS Impetuous_

_Now..._

The cell was rather austere and bare; plain alloy walls, a non-skid floor, a utilitarian bed molded into the structure of the room, lit by recessed glow panels and closed off with a heavy hatch. The lights were dim at the moment, and surprisingly soft rather than the typical harsh industrial glare that would be expected of a jail cell devoid of creature comforts.

On the bed was laid out the still unconscious form of Alani. The young Twi'lek had been stripped of all weapons including the two hold-out blasters she normally kept in her boots and even the length of monomolecular wire concealed inside her lekku wraps, but wasn't restrained at all.

Several minutes later she stirred, eyes opening to the dim light of the cell, and groaned a little at the stiffness remaining from the knockout gas. Swinging her feet down she ran down a mental checklist, then frowned as she realized that they had managed to find all of her hidden surprises, the ones that had allowed her to bust out of several other Imperial prisons.

As she moved, the lights brightened slowly, until they were of a normal, yet still not harsh, intensity, but otherwise nothing happened. Alani muttered under her breath as she rose to her feet, looking around the cell, taking a mental inventory. While her blast vest and helmet were missing, along with all of her weapons, gadgets and gear, she was still wearing the synthleather leggings and heavy duty tunic she normally wore. Maybe not particularly feminine, being utilitarian to the extreme, but they fit her perfectly almost like a body glove.

She had been standing for less than thirty seconds, give or take, when suddenly a voice boomed out of a hidden speaker. "Face the rear wall with your hands on your head." in chill, mechanical tones. The Twi'lek instead scanned the walls, spotting what looked like the camera, and extended the one finger salute before leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"You will comply, face the rear wall with your hands on your head." came the voice again, as obvious vents opened high on the wall. "Failure to comply will result in punitive action."

"Do your worst, Impshits." she said, flipping what she presumed was the surveillance camera off again.

Even as she was speaking one of the vents finished opening and suddenly a small droid arm equipped with a stunner extended out, oriented, and fired, knocking Alani down into a crumpled heap on the floor. Almost before she was down, the door slid smoothly open and two troopers, clad not in the familiar white-and-black of Stormtroopers, but in armor that had the same shape but was the same dark gray and black of Imperial fighters, entered with one covering the other as he approached with a set of binders.

Alani wasn't quite as out of it as she seemed however and sprang forward, slamming into the nearer trooper and trying to drive him into the one covering him but another stun blast from the droid struck her, foiling her intent and sending her down again. Before she could recover, the trooper she'd slammed into had managed to get her wrists into the binders and hauled her to her feet.

"Feisty one, isn't she" came the comment from the trooper who was covering, while the one hauling her to her feet nodded as he did so.

"Yes." was the grunted reply as the trooper grabbed one of her lekku while pushing her forward, causing the Twi'lek to wince in pain. Once out in the corridor, she was pushed along past other closed cells, the trooper not allowing her to really regain her balance by yanking her about.

"If Sarge see's ya..." the other trooper began, only to trail off as another armored figure came around a corner.

"She resisted movement, Sarge." the first trooper said a bit sullenly, before the other could say anything although he did stop yanking the girl around at least. Alani glared at the newcomer still wincing as the trooper had a tight grip on her lekku.

"She is restrained now, Private." came the growled response, causing the trooper to finally release the lekku. "Good." the figure continued, then stepped forward, one fist catching Alani's tunic's collar and hauling the Twi'lek close to his helmet. "You aren't going to accomplish anything but make things worse for yourself, girl, by fighting, not here, not now, so stop being an idiot." came from the helmet.

Alani just glared back, fury in her eyes, but didn't say anything, with her arms bound behind her and half-lifted off her feet there wasn't much she could do after all. The sergeant grunted again, releasing his grip and stepping back turning his head to look at the escorts.

"Interrogation One, Private, Lieutenant Liskin is waiting." the figure said turning away, as Alani Liskin, rebel commando, captain of the _Firebird_, blinked in surprise even as she was shoved along once more.

* * *

The interrogation room was relatively large and sparse and not at all what Alani had expected. There were no signs of torture equipment, just a plain desk and a pair of chairs. It was the figure behind the desk that brought a harsh expression to the twi'lek's face.

Another female Twi'lek sat there. Lieutenant Alani Liskin, Imperial Marine Special Operations, was clad in a perfectly tailored Imperial officers uniform that clung to her figure as if she poured herself into it rather than putting it on. She seemed to be ignoring Alani as she was hauled in and made to sit down down opposite, the two troopers remaining behind her.

The oddest thing of all, the rebel pilot and the Imperial officer looked like they were twin sisters, identical in every way aside from expression and clothing. The lekku patterns, the skin tones, the facial structure, the figure... all were absolutely identical.

The two troopers didn't say anything, although they did glance at each other, while Alani blinked, having the oddest feeling of looking into some sort of weird fun house mirror and seeing herself.

The other Twi'lek finally looked up, and blinked as she looked at the prisoner opposite herself and had the same experience, the two staring at each other for endless seconds.

They both recovered simultaneously. "What the..." came the chorus, and even their voices were identical causing them both to blink a few times and stop in befuddled confusion. Behind Alani, well, the rebel Alani, the two troopers looked at each other, as things were getting... weird.

The two twi'lek's were now silent as if waiting for the other to say something first, staring at each other. The silence was thick enough to slice with a knife, broken only by the occasional faint sounds of armor rustling as the two troopers waited.

Finally the Imperial Twi'lek broke the silence with a visible breath "Dismissed. Remove the binders." even as the rebel one opened her own mouth before firmly closing it. The two troopers paused for a moment but orders were orders, one nodded and removed the binders before the pair departed, leaving the rebel Twi'lek rubbing her wrists and matching glare to glare with the Imperial one across the desk.

"You..." they both started simultaneously almost sounding as if they had rehearsed this, but their words differed quickly from there.

"You little Imperial lapdog, kissing some human's ass to play at being an officer!" came from rebel-Alani, while the Imperial version said "You stupid rebel scum, kissing some human's ass to play at being 'free'?" in the same breath.

"I am? You are the..." again came simultaneously, as the two leaned forward, glaring at each other with identical expressions. "... the one working for the xenophobes, you..." they both cut off at that, leaning forward and looking quite like they were about to jump over the table and start scrapping.

"Traitorous bitch!" came from both of them, as they grew more and more steamed, obviously managing to swiftly get underneath each others skins with absolutely no problem whatsoever as after all, they both knew exactly how to do it and had the verbal flaying knives out.

"Rebel..." Imperial Alani...

"Imperial..." Rebel Alani...

All together now... "Whore!"

Things rapidly went downhill from there with insults flying back and forth with nearly as much intensity as a pair of turbolaser batteries firing at maximum rate and with nearly as much heat and energy. Strangely enough, the two Twi'lek women were saying nearly identical things at the identical time, only with the Imperial slamming Rebels and vice versa, and both seemingly absolutely certain that it was they who were in the right and that the other was unspeakably evil or deluded or insert calumny here.

"Sithspit, this is weird." they both chorused simultaneously, still glaring furiously. "You miserable traitor, YOU ARE NOT ME!" came from two throats, and then they were on their feet, glaring across the desk at each other, the scruffy looking Rebel, the perfectly tailored Imperial, yet, fundamentally they were the same, a simple change of clothing and nobody would be able to tell who was who.

Even the highly sophisticated holocams that were recording everything that happened were unable to determine exactly who started what happened next, but in instants the two twi'lek's had sprung at each other and crashed into each other across the desk, both yelling and cursing in Basic as they rolled down to the deck, pounding at each other with a desperate fury.

The same pair of troopers burst back in at the commotion, but the two twi'lek's were too close to each other to use their stunners, and the way they were moving; clawing and gouging and fighting, brought pause as well. Finally they looked at each other and dove in, each one grabbing one of the two combatants and trying to separate them.

Imperial troopers were brave, loyal, strong, disciplined and well-trained. They weren't always that good at unexpected and strange situations however. So neither was quite expecting it when the Twi'lek they were holding twisted in their grips and brought one knee up in a vicious strike right to their armored codpieces sending them both down to the ground in blinding pain.

As soon as the troopers lost their grip the two twi'lek's, identical enough to be twins, struck at each other once more, progressively more obscene curses and taunts flying from their lips as the troopers staggered to their feet. What had once been an immaculately tailored Imperial uniform was now torn and disheveled, while the sturdy fabric of the heavy-duty tunic was likewise suffering, both twi'lek's had darkening eyes and neither showed any sign of slowing down for an instant.

More troopers swarmed into the room and barely managed to drag the two women away from each other although the streams of curses and insults continued, punctuated, almost as if a refrain, with shouts of "YOU AREN'T ME!" Neither seemed at all willing to give up the fight, struggling against the hands holding them, not so much to escape as to get back to pummeling the other into the dust.

The two women were manhandled down the corridor and back to the cell block, where they were tossed into adjoining cells which were quickly locked down. Even through the sound-dampeners, however, the two were still fully audibly screaming at each other.

* * *

"OK, I know Lt Liskin has a temper but that was just... strange." Lt Hido said, as he and several other officers met in a conference room. "I thought that having a fellow Twi'lek interviewing that prisoner would be most effective, and instead it turns into a cat fight that still has the ship talking."

The wookie sitting across the table from the Rodian rumbled a chuckle, then, in what was a remarkably muted tone for a wookie, replied.

The others around the table chuckled, with some of them laughing loudly, as Hido shook his head. "No, I doubt the Captain will authorize setting up a mud pit and letting the two of them have it out. Tell Private Welkins to not bring that idea up again."

One of the other marine officers, a slender human, recovered from the chuckles a bit faster than the others, and leaned forward. "One thing I will say, watching the tapes. Something struck me as significant. If we were to look at it as an uninterested third party, or just used a filter to delete the words 'Rebel' and 'Imperial', they were saying the exact same things, they believed the exact same things... meaning they valued the exact same things. More importantly, the rebel Alani seemed perfectly certain of her viewpoint that the **Empire **were the xenophobic monsters, not the **Rebellion**, so much so that she didn't even feel the need to defend her own side, but rather was accusing our Alani of being a deluded 'traitor'. Combine that with the materials we've recovered from the ship, the confusion of the other 'rebels' when they encounter non-human Imperial personnel, and the nearly as strong reaction from the Dosh towards said non-humans, thinking them deluded traitors..." he trailed off, glancing around the room.

"So..." Hido said, frowning. "You think Ensign Merweth's theory is correct, that they cannot be from around here, but are rather from some bizarre alternate dimension?"

"I wouldn't go that far, Hido, not yet, but I will say that they aren't from around here, that's for sure, extra-galactic, extra-dimensional, I just cannot say." came the response, leading to silence in the room for a moment.

Hido shook his head, the rodian frowning slightly. "We don't have enough evidence yet, really. I grant that it's an interesting conundrum combined with the anomaly but for all we know we could still be dealing with an elaborate disinformation scheme from the rebels meant to confuse us for some unknown reason."


	4. Chapter 4

_**The Other Side of Eternity  
Chapter Four**_

_Bridge – HIMS Impetuous_  
_Zaloriis System_ - _Now_

The _Vindicator _class light cruiser _Tyrant's Bane _and the _Nebulon-B _class destroyer _Jasper _had arrived during the 'night' watch, joining the lightly damaged _Impetuous _as she lingered near the battle site and the detected hyperspace anomaly. The small flotilla was mostly engaged in cleaning up the aftermath of the battle with the Rebel task force, with salvage shuttles moving amongst the debris field pin-pointing still active systems either for salvage or for destruction by the patrols of roving X-Wings.

"What is the status from Sector Command?" Captain Nalla inquired of the duty communications officer as she strode through the communications section en-route to the bridge.

"Admiral Onasi is en-route and expected to arrive in several hours, Ma'am. A science team is being dispatched as well and is expected to arrive in the next two to three days depending on transport availability, Ma'am." came the report from the young twi'lek ensign manning the communications station. "The dispatch stated that Admiral Onasi is currently in command of the 93rd Strike Task Force, I have downloaded the data for your review."

Nalla smiled slightly at the slightly over-eager young officer and nodded. "Very well, Ensign, carry on." she said genially before passing onto the bridge itself.

"Status?" she inquired immediately, not even giving the duty officer the chance to make the ritual 'captain on deck' call she cordially detested.

Commander Llor, accustomed to his CO's eccentricities in that regard, contented himself with a slightly raised eyebrow in silent commentary on her refusal to bow to that ancient tradition, but answered crisply. "Salvage operations are on schedule, nothing significant to report. _Tyrant's Bane_ and _Jasper_ arrived on schedule and are providing close-in support to operations. There have been no further unscheduled in-system arrivals, the planetary defense force is engaged in heightened patrols of near-space and report nothing out of the ordinary. Astrogation shows no changes in the anomaly according to their scans, all data is being transmitted back to Sector Command for further analysis." a slight pause as the diminutive officer shifted mental gears slightly. "Lt Hido reports that apart from the unusual reactions of Lt Liskin and the twi'lek prisoner now..." a sardonic pause and slight smirk "positively identified as one Captain Alani Liskin of the 'independent' vessel _Firebird_ to each other the currently detained crew of the derelict have been rather confused at the makeup of our crew but not actually hostile. Lt Hido informed me that he would have a complete report for you within the hour on the initial interviews."

"So that ship has been identified as the _Firebird_, just not the _Firebird_ we were expecting? And we now have two Liskin's on board?" Nalla asked, eyebrow climbing rapidly towards her hairline.

"More or less, Ma'am, Hido is still trying to make sense of what is going on, but it is looking stranger and stranger the more we learn." Llor replied. "He promised a full report, as I said, he's currently compiling everything together. Both Liskin's are currently under heavy sedation in sickbay as that appears to be the only means of keeping them from screaming obscenities at each other even if they aren't in the same compartment."

"Very well." Nalla began, only to be cut off by a call from the crew pit.

"Status change on the anomaly, ma'am, detecting a Cronau radiation buildup at..." the report was cut off suddenly as a flash of energy erupted from the center of the anomalous region, and a pair of Imperial-II class Star Destroyers erupted into existence in an oddly chaotic flash of energy.

"General quarters, clear for action." Nalla snapped, followed moments later by the armored panels snapping shut and the holographic displays activating once more. The Battle Stations klaxon sounded in the background as the ship cleared for action.

"Transmit IFF challenges to the newcomers, classify as Raid One." she continued, even as the bridge crew smoothly went about bringing the mighty cruiser to full battle readiness.

"No response, Ma'am. Status change, contacts are launching unidentified snubfighters, profile consistent with data from the derelict." came the report, as the contact icons on the display flashed red, dozens of TIE fighters erupting from the launch chutes of the opposing vessels, visually nearly sister ships of the _Impetuous_ herself. "Identifying snubfighters as TIE's at this time."

"Have _Tyrant's Bane_ and _Jasper_ form up and prepare to engage. Designate leading contact as Alpha, trailing as Beta, and incoming snubs as Charlie. Continue broadcasting challenge, suspend all salvage operations and launch all snubs. Comms, contact Sector and Admiral Onasi and advise of the situation and keep on trying to get those people on channel." Nalla rapped out, stepping forward to peer into the main display.

From the immense launch bays of the Star Destroyer spilled dozens of Imperial-marked X-Wings, racing out to join the Combat Space Patrol, on the plot came icons from the _Tyrant's Bane _and _Jasper _as they launched their own smaller snubfighter contingents, along with the icons from the planetary defense forces units as they scrambled. Unfortunately the old KSE Alpha-3 _Nimbus_ V-Wing snubfighters lacked integral hyperdrives and there were no available booster rings for them so they would take some precious minutes to arrive at the battlefield leaving the X-Wings badly outnumbered by the far smaller TIEs.

"Ma'am, still no response from the new contacts, we are picking up ship-to-ship chatter however it is not in standard Imperial protocols or encryption." came the report from the communications section. "Sector has been notified, Admiral Onasi advises will arrive in approximately thirty minutes."

Suddenly the situation exploded, as both of the opposing star destroyer's opened fire simultaneously targeting the X-Wing squadrons that were on Combat Space Patrol. Likewise the TIE's also opened fire, forcing the Imperial X-Wings to engage in evasive maneuvers to avoid destruction. Within instants what had been a tense stand-off had erupted into battle.

"Classify contacts as hostile and engage." Nalla ordered coldly as icons for the snubfighters started blazing red and flashing from existence. "_Impetuous_ and all snubfighter are to concentrate fire on Alpha, _Tyrant's Bane_ and _Jasper_ on Beta. Comms, alert Admiral Onasi of status change."

Moments later, almost before the order had finished, the massive batteries of the cruiser thundered forth, sending stabbing bolts of coruscating destruction towards the closer of the two enemy vessels. Shields flared and mostly held with only minor penetration scorching the armored hulls of the enemy ships which returned fire, both vessels focusing all of their firepower on _Impetuous_ while ignoring the smaller vessels with apparent contempt.

"Fifteen degrees port, two-thirds thrust. Five degree's negative vertical." Nalla ordered the helm, sending the cruiser onto an oblique heading that served to partially mask the fire of the trailing enemy vessel. The ships multiple shield layers and redundant generators were so far absorbing the incoming fire well enough but that would inevitably change. Answering fire clawed into the weaker shields of the enemy vessel, not yet penetrating either but that would come as well. "Helm, evasion pattern Gamma Five."

The cruiser immediately began twisting about, the selected evasion pattern intended to spread enemy fire across multiple quadrants of the shield grid, thus increasing overall survivability by a rather significant amount. The drawback to that was that the rapid maneuvering reduced the accuracy and intensity of _Impetuous_' own fire as batteries weren't always able to lock on and fire as rapidly as potentially possible.

The two lighter units used their greater speed and agility to catch the trailing enemy vessel in a cross fire, with _Tyrant's Bane _dipping below the ecliptic and _Jasper_ soaring above. Such fancy tactics proved to be a bit pointless however as the enemy target was seemingly ignoring them and their relatively light firepower, swinging wide of its companion vessel to attempt to maintain target lock on _Impetuous_ alone. The enemy snubfighters, identified from the derelicts war-book as TIE/ln fighters, were focusing their full attention on the squadrons of Imperial X-Wings, rather than attempting to interfere in the battle between the larger warships.

The X-Wings were charging through the mass of light interceptors, generally ignoring them unless they got a clear shot as their focus was on pressing home attack runs on the enemy warship. Here and there shields overloaded and snubfighters burned in brief funeral pyres of incandescent glory but the majority of the snubs pressed their strikes home, sending shoals of proton torpedoes and concussion missiles into the leading star destroyer. Few of the hits accomplished much against the intact particle shielding of the enemy vessels, but here and there a torpedo or missile penetrated and spread ugly pockmarks of destruction across the target.

It was chaos. It was hell. It was battle. Turbolasers snarled and spat defiance across the vast distances of a space battlefield, interleaved with the crackling bolts of ion cannons and the crisscrossing ion trails of the snubfighters. Brief flashes of brilliance marked the graves of dead snubfighters even as the giants pummeled each other with everything they had. Turrets indexed about, tracking their targets as the ships maneuvered in a lethal ballet of firepower and destruction. The two attacking star destroyers remained relatively stationary, maneuvering only to maintain clear lanes of fire on _Impetuous_, while the defending flotilla bobbed and weaved, thrusters flaring brilliantly as they attempted to simultaneously keep their own weapon arcs clear while trying to divide the enemy's fire with a marked lack of success as the two star destroyers stubbornly continued to focus solely on _Impetuous_.

"Ray and particle shielding down to 30 percent, ma'am." came the unwelcome report from damage control central, even as the tactical plot burned red and the deck of the mighty cruiser heaved as another brutal salvo pounded home. "They are still concentrating fire on us."

"Close the range." Nalla ordered with a frown. The enemy ships weren't behaving like the cruisers they appeared to be but rather as battle line units. "Helm, starboard five degrees, positive three... evasion delta six and full power. At my mark full slew turn to port and gunnery, alpha strike as you bear..."

The massive ship went to full thrust and lunged forward, while her smaller companions continued to pour fire into their own target with very little to show for it thanks to the heavy shields their lighter weapons were struggling to penetrate. Finally, minutes after the battle had begun, the first of the planetary militia's V-Wings had arrived, diving into the fray and freeing the X-Wings to make mostly unopposed runs against their target by mixing up with the TIE's in snarling dogfights that danced around the battlefield, a violent and lethal ballet forming the under card to the heavyweight slugging match.

_Impetuous_ charged forward like a wounded grizzly, crabbing towards the enemy vessels at an oblique angle that seemed to catch them by surprise. That brief moment of hesitation was all Nalla needed as the cruiser reached an imaginary point in space designated solely on the tactical holodisplays on her bridge.

"Mark! Skew turn and fire!" she shouted, glaring at the display. The holodisplays skewed wildly as the helm turned hard, the ship almost skidding in space as the reaction control system fired at full power to augment the normal thrust vectoring systems. _Impetuous_ actually managed to slide almost behind the enemy vessel and her turbolaser batteries spoke with one furious voice of thunder as the vessel managed to bring every single weapon to bear at once in a textbook maneuver right out of the Imperial Fleet Tactical Handbook. The massive volley succeeded perfectly in its primary goal, the entire shield grid of the hapless enemy star destroyer was brought down as the primary generators were overloaded.

The enemy vessels were reacting, but too slowly. Turning hard to bring their batteries back to bear on the wounded cruiser that had gotten behind them. It was hardly the best maneuver to extricate themselves from the situation, better to have used their pitch controls rather than their yaw, but it permitted the two enemies to return fire with a single volley each before _Impetuous_ fired a second time, striking the now unshielded and fatally vulnerable target Alpha.

Within moments the massive enemy star destroyer was bleeding air from dozens of penetrating strikes with most of its heavy batteries silenced. _Impetuous_, however, was in almost as bad of shape and the second enemy ship was still mostly undamaged as the lighter armament of the light warships wasn't up to reliably punching through its defenses. Another volley thundered home and target Alpha went out of control, listing heavily as reaction thrusters got stuck and the main drives shut down as they overloaded from a penetrating hit into the ships solar-ionization reactor. The ship went dark as a pitiful handful of escape pods ejected. But it didn't die uselessly, it's last salvo striking home hard on _Impetuous_, wiping out the primary shielding.

"We've lost shields, ma'am." came the grim call, even as the second target soared out of it's dying sisters shadow and prepared to fire. "Five seconds to get backup generators fully online."

"Rotate ship and secure for impact." Nalla ordered, hoping to take the next volley from the surviving enemy on the massively armored ventral surface of the cruiser. The battered vessel responded crisply, RCS thrusters flaring to life and spinning the massive cruiser about its axis like a top.

The expected volley lanced out, only to be intercepted as the still undamaged _Nebulon-B Jasper_ dove into the line of fire, physically interposing herself between that lethal barrage and the nearly crippled and extremely vulnerable cruiser. The small ships shields flared and died and flames erupted as the paper-thin armor was penetrated. Moments later the small ship vanished forever in a ball of plasma, her back broken and her reactors gone critical.

"Damnit!" Nalla almost shouted, even as the ventral batteries spat return fire, stabbing through the wreckage that had once been a proud destroyer in service to the Empire and into _Jasper's_ executioner.

"Backup shield generators coming online, Ma'am." came the report from engineering as the cruiser completed the switchover from the failed primary generators.

"Good, continue rotation and maintain fire, tell _Tyrant's Bane_ to swing around and attack from the rear of Beta." Nalla ordered grimly, face set with fury as the thunderous engagement resumed with fresh fury.

After the brief pause from the death of the destroyer, the fury of battle only escalated. The critically damaged _Impetuous_ was no longer able to match the thunders of the enemy warship, but they were paying for their successes with brutal interest as both the crippled cruiser and _Tyrant's Bane_ poured fire into the faltering shields of the enemy ship. The majority of _Impetuous_' turbolaser batteries were damaged or destroyed, while _Tyrant's Bane_'s were too light to be decisive.

The enemy TIE's were almost completely wiped out at a murderous cost in PDF V-Wings. Less than two squadrons of surviving X-Wings were all now focusing their relatively puny fire on the wounded giant sending up pinpricks of fire with each strike as they wore away at the thick armor like a swarm of gnats tearing into an elephant. But each little bit helped in a desperate situation like this had become.

"Incoming hyperwakes!" came the call suddenly from tactical. "Estimate twenty hulls, tentative ID as the 93rd. On expected vector and time chop."

"Clear their emergence zone." Nalla ordered, as the critically damaged warship struggled to respond to her helm, only two of the main thrusters still operating at full thrust. It was barely enough to get clear, as an incoming volley hammered hard into the massively damaged cruiser moment's later knocking out both thrusters. Coasting on momentum alone the cruiser barely got clear.

In an eruption of Cronau radiation that almost blinded the surviving sensors the twenty warships of the 93rd Strike Task Force appeared out of hyper with their shields snapping up with meticulous precision at the minimum possible interval. At the center of the formation floated a lone, massive _Executor_-class super carrier, flanked by a half dozen far smaller _Allegiance_-class battleships and surrounded by a carefully arrayed close escort force comprised of a mix of three _Tector_ and four _Imperial-II _class heavy cruisers. An outer ring of a half dozen _Vindicator_-class light cruisers completed the arriving force, arrayed in an outer defensive perimeter shell around the heavier units. Swarms of X-Wings, Kappa-3 interceptors, Super-Y Mk I's, and ARC-175 'Spark ARC' strike snubfighters deployed from their launch bays within moments of the task forces arrival adding a penumbra of snubfighters to the formation and coming perilously close to overloading the holographic displays before automatic filters kicked in.

It was a matter of seconds before a massive barrage of turbolaser fire ranging from the light batteries of the arriving _Vindicators_ to the super-heavy blasts from the _Allegiances_ erupted from the formation and converged with merciless and lethal precision on the surviving enemy star destroyer. Seconds later, a brilliant flash of energy heralded the demise of the enemy warship. Moments later the first vessel gamely returned fire from it's sole remaining operational turret before being silenced forever in an almost negligent second barrage from the powerful formation.

Nalla sagged, gripping the crash bars on the bridge walk for support as the sudden cessation of battle caused the inevitable adrenaline crash. "Stand down from battle stations, commence full damage control and casualty evacuation protocols." she said, her voice a bit hoarse as she forced herself to straighten once more.

"Ma'am, engineering is SCRAMing the main reactor, switching over to backup reactors now." came the report, even as the lights dimmed on the bridge and the sophisticated displays flickered before returning to normal operation albeit on backup power. "Backup systems online and nominal, successful shutdown of main power."

"Understood, all non-essential crew prepare for possible evacuation, prepare to evacuate the civilians from the derelict as well." Nalla said, voice even grimmer now as damage assessments started pouring in. "Contact the force flag to inform them of our situation. I want all hands to be prepared to abandon ship at a moment's notice if absolutely necessary, but we're going to save this ship if at all possible."


	5. Chapter 5

_**The Other Side of Eternity**_

_**Chapter 5**_

_Briefing Room – HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – Now_

The massive briefing room was full, yet every person present was there for a reason and not as mere spectators. Across the front of the room, on the far side of the massive centrally-mounted holodisplay were seated Fleet Admiral Trevion Onasi and his flag staff. In the tiered seats facing the Admiral and his staff sat the senior officers of the 93rd as well as the surviving senior officers from _HIMS_ _Impetuous_ and _HIMS_ _Tyrant's_ _Bane_. To the sides of the briefing room were stationed the specialist personnel who had worked to piece together all of the available data. A lectern had been set up facing the Admiral and flag staff for the use of the various speakers while a slightly depressed 'pit' encircled the projector proper allowing technicians their needed work area without impinging on the display itself.

The display was currently filled with a series of images of the two enemy star destroyers displayed along with magnified sections. Blocks of data scrolled along with the briefing officers statements.

"As you can see, these vessels are nearly identical in hull form to our own but have a dramatically disparate armament distribution. Their main turbolaser battery is concentrated in these apparently effectively unarmored octuple mountings of these vessels; capital grade turbolaser fire was only observed coming from these mounts, with moderate concentrations of lighter fire from the brim trenches and dorsal surface. Rather curiously, they appear to have negligible ventral armament. We have marked suspected ion cannon and tractor projector locations, however neither were observed in action during the engagement." the briefing officer, a slender Trandoshan lieutenant, paused as he advanced his dataslate.

"Overall, our preliminary analysis indicates a strong design focus on offensive firepower against other capital ships. There was no significant anti-fighter defensive fire from any location on either ship, which led to increased snubfighter efficiency during their attack runs as noted previously. in addition, their shield generators were less densely layered and they did not appear to have backup shields." a pause and a change of images on the holodisplay. "Structural differences include an additional deck level in the dorsal superstructure, no ventral terracing around the reactor bulb, significantly larger hangar bays which appear to double as 'capture' bays as proposed for the original Imperial-II design but rejected in favor of additional ventral armor, and marginally smaller maneuvering vector plates on the main drives. Escape pod numbers are reduced in comparison to our vessels and appear to be distributed less evenly. We are unable to accurately fully analyze sensor or communications systems based on available data however targeting systems appear to be broadly comparable to our own and recorded emissions are likewise roughly analogous to our own systems within a ten percent variance."

The display then changed to a rotating display of a TIE fighter as a female rutian twi'lek took over the briefing.

"The snubfighters designated as 'TIE/ln' types make use of an ion engine thrust system broadly comparable to that used on the T-65B X-Wing, but with twin engines and thrust vectoring as opposed to our quad engines and differential pairing. Thrust-weight ratio is extremely positive resulting in exceptional performance on par with the Kappa series of interceptors. On board consumables are extremely limited and the cockpit is not pressurized, requiring the use of a notably bulky pressure suit by the pilot. There are no provisions for multi-species use." a pause and the holodisplay zoomed in on the weapons array. "Armament is light, consisting of a pair of light rapid fire lasers mounted close together beneath the cockpit itself. There are no provisions for missile or torpedo launchers. In addition there are neither shield generators nor a hyperdrive and no astromech support is included. The pilot ejection system is serviceable but does not meet imperial standards for pilot support in the event of an in-flight emergency requiring bail out. There is a minimal rescue transponder in the seat itself but it would not meet even civilian requirements for rescue gear. Commander Skywalker took the captured specimen for a test flight and reported that it handled extremely well and was a quality snubfighter, but the electronics fit was well below-par."

Another short pause and the twi'lek lieutenant continued after consulting her dataslate. "The TIE/ln is most likely intended as an exclusively space-based craft, using the rack systems highlighted here for launch and recovery. While the radiator wings are capable of supporting the mass of the fighter in standard gravity without sustaining damage, our testing found ground launch and recovery to be extremely difficult."

The twi'lek stepped back as a human lieutenant commander with intelligence tabs stepped forward to take her place. "There were less than thirty prisoners taken in total from both the destroyed vessels and the fighter squadrons. We lost an entire recovery team when one of the escape pods was found to contain a fanatic with an armed thermal detonator who set it off as soon as the hatch was opened. The majority of the pods were filled with dead personnel, apparently killed by similar fanatics who subsequently committed suicide. Preliminary interviews with the prisoners from the ships indicates that the fanatics were part of something called the ISB which appears to operate as a sort of secret police within their military ranks. The pilot of the captured TIE/ln has so far only identified herself as ES-876-12 and has so far declined to even give her rank or real name. Insignia on her flight suit is identical to that of senior form cadets in our academies, however we are not certain if there is a parallel. All prisoners taken are human, with all but the TIE pilot being male and none are identified as officers."

He then consulted his dataslate for a moment and continued. "The self-identified 'rebel' personnel from the derelict have been more cooperative. They are still aboard _Impetuous_ at this time, however we intend to transfer them to _Executor_ as soon as practical. Their vessel, unfortunately, was destroyed due to a direct hit on the hangar where it was stored. We have been reviewing the data gathered by Lieutenant Hido and can confirm from our analysis that while this vessel is named '_Firebird_' it is not a bio-warfare delivery platform. Intelligence recommends that they be treated as civilian refugee's rather than as prisoners."

The officer turned and nodded, stepping back as Lieutenant Hido took the podium. On the holodisplay a side by side image of two twi'leks was shown, along with annotated data. "Both Captain Alani Liskin of the Firebird and Lieutenant Alani Liskin, Imperial Marine Corps, are currently sedated in sickbay aboard _Impetuous_. Full DNA tests have been completed, showing perfect matches even beyond that shown by monozygomatic twins. Moreover, there is no sign of the intron degradation common in cloning techniques nor any other tell tale indicators of such. Of the remaining crew, we have only found a partial match to one of them, and the differences are more substantial. Of interest, while we only have previous test results on record for Lieutenant Liskin, both Liskin's are showing a substantially elevated midichloridian count. Even under heavy sedation both are exhibiting an unsettling degree of restlessness and neural activity."

"Based on our interviews with the _Firebird's_ crew and supporting data from the battle itself, we have established a preliminary theory about the hyperspace anomaly in this system. The anomaly appears to connect this system with an 'alternate copy' of itself, one which includes both perfect parallels and significant divergences from history as we know it. While we would like to gather additional data before making any hard conclusions, we are prepared to provisionally classify the anomaly as some sort of dimensional bridge or gate. Our immediate priority is to confirm whether or not the anomaly allows transit in both directions or only from the other side to ours, and if so whether the other side presents a security threat to the Empire." Hido concluded before stepping back. The display dimmed to the default Imperial naval emblem as the briefing concluded.

_Flag Office – HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – Now_

Fleet Admiral Trevion Onasi was old, and looked every year of his age. From the thinning silver hair to the heavily lined and careworn face he looked positively ancient. Ancient, that is, until one looked into his eyes and saw the fire and energy that burned still within their depths, the eyes of a man far younger than his calender years. There had been desultory attempts to retire the old admiral, now and again, but they had all failed despite him being decades past the supposedly mandatory retirement age. The Navy was his life, his passion, his very reason for living past the deaths of his wife, his only son and his pregnant daughter-in-law to a rebel terror raid on Taris almost two decades earlier. Behind his back he was known as the Old Man of the Navy, but the phrase was never said with anything but the greatest respect.

He had another claim to fame as one of the few men who had ever managed to out-maneuver Empress Skywalker when she really wanted something; having managed to get himself back out into the field while Padme was dead set on keeping him 'safe' behind a desk on Coruscant as the Chief of Fleet Operations. Many firmly believed that his withstanding of the famous Padme Pout proved he was the bravest human being in the galaxy. Of course, what with the 93rd being more or less a reserve formation patrolling the Core worlds and testing the latest and greatest kit rather than serving on the front lines, it was debatable about who had truly won that argument.

The Admiral's office was shockingly spartan for a career officer with as distinguished a career as he. Most fleet admirals even beginning to approach his towering seniority would have an I Love Me wall of downright epic proportions; his office had only the semi-obligatory portrait of the Emperor and a small oil painting showing him with one of the many officers he'd mentored and counseled throughout his long career. The credenza behind his desk held a rather plebeian holomodel of _HIMS Executor_, along with a decidedly archaic manual coffee maker that appeared almost as ancient as the admiral behind the desk.

Of course, the office did have a spectacular view, with an entirely transparent bulkhead giving a god's eye view of the universe. But even this privilege was made quite functional, with repeater holodisplays tastefully tucked away into the other bulkheads and a full function tactical imager built into the desk. Set discreetly in a corner was a long-distance holo communicator tied into the Imperial Holonet.

Onasi glanced up when a discrete knock sounded on the the hatch leading into his office, the admiral's distaste for 'the infernal whistles' of the intercom being well known to his staff. "Enter." came a voice that sounded like it belonged to a far younger man.

The hatch opened and his Flag Lieutenant stepped in. "Sir, Lieutenant Commander Skywalker is here as requested." the almost painfully young Lieutenant (Junior-Grade) said.

"Excellent, thank you Markus, send him in and dismissed." Onasi replied. And just to irritate his guest he stood up, a slight smirk on his lips.

Luke Skywalker stepped in and braced to attention, only to be beaten to the salute by the Fleet Admiral. Any wearer of the Imperial Grand Cross was entitled to take a salute from every other member of the military regardless of rank, and it tickled Onasi's sardonic sense of humor to embarrass the young man by always beating him to the salute even though they **both** held the Grand Cross. Luke, fortunately, had gotten much better at not getting flustered whenever Onasi pulled it off, at least when they were in private, so he simply completed his own salute with a slight sigh.

"Lieutenant Commander Skywalker reporting to the Fleet Admiral as ordered, Sir." he rapped out, the ultra-formal and correct language a subtle payback of his own to Onasi's foibles.

Onasi only chuckled, waving to the seat in front of his desk while sinking back down into his own. "Take a seat, Commander." he said, then leaned forward steepling his fingers. "I called you in today due to some sensitive material Lieutenant Hido developed from the ersatz _Firebird_. We're classifying it as too sensitive for general dissemination, but it's really what drove our determination that this is almost certainly a dimensional gate of some sort rather than a mundane hyperspace anomaly."

Luke lifted one eyebrow slightly, a mannerism he'd picked up from the man he was sitting across from and shared with others who had learned at his feet. "Sensitive, Sir? That you are telling me means it likely involves the royal family, yes?"

Another slight chuckle and a nod. "Indeed, I have already forwarded full copies to your parents, and" a devilish twinkle set Luke instantly on guard. "I decided Stacy had more than sufficient clearance to view at least a portion of the material."

"It's profoundly embarrassing, isn't it Sir?" Luke asked with a resigned sigh, already mentally cataloging all the teasing he'd likely get from his folks, not to mention his girlfriend.

"Not all of it." Onasi leaned back, then keyed the desktop holodisplay.

"The display lit up, showing what appeared to be a Rebel propaganda piece, albeit one that was unusually amateurish for them. Luke leaned forward as the image of a command center came up, his eyebrows climbing as he watched somebody who appeared to be a spitting image of his sister - albeit out of uniform and with a truly ridiculous hairdo - coordinating the battle along with several unidentified individuals. His eyebrows climbed even higher when his own voice came over the speakers during a 'Red Squadron' check in.

When the image showed just what these rebels were facing he looked at Onasi, getting a nod that it was indeed evidently accurate imagery. For the next several minutes they listened as the battle took place, then Luke involuntarily snorted in laughter at the sudden arrival of a tramp freighter calling itself the _Millennium Falcon_ swooping in to save the day and allow the ersatz Luke in the transmission to hit a one in a billion shot and destroy what appeared to be the Strategic Command Battlestation.

"That's not all that..." Luke began, then trailed off as the recording continued, showing what appeared to be an awards ceremony being held in the great hall of a Massassi temple... before the young Jedi's face suddenly burned a brilliant crimson fit to illuminate the room at the... the... the kiss between himself and his sister.

"You... you didn't... Sir, please tell me you didn't send this to anybody at all..." Luke looked at a now chuckling Onasi for a moment then collapsed into his chair. "You did..."

"I'm sure they won't tease you too much over it, Luke." Onasi replied with a lurking grin. "Besides, I do believe this finally will make you even with Leia over the time you walked in on her..."

"Don't remind me, I'm still traumatized over that one." Luke said hastily waving his hands. "But ewwwww, kissing my sister like that..." by this point the pair weren't really two officers discussing anything, but rather acting like the ersatz family they were, with Onasi having been the honorary uncle to all the Skywalker children.

The moment didn't last, and typically it was Luke who straightened up first. "So obviously with the significant discrepancies between the situation as we know it to be and the situation as rather convincingly portrayed in this recording, the hypothesis of alternate dimensions is better supported." he said thoughtfully, although his cheeks were still burning from the embarrassment of the ending sequence of the holovid.

"Precisely, and that is a secondary reason why I called you in here today. I'd like for you to meet with the ersatz _Firebird's_ crew and conduct them here aboard _Executor_, putting them up in the visiting officer quarters. In addition I would like you to meet with the prisoners from this ersatz Empire and see if you can convince them to be more forthcoming." Onasi said, nodding in approval of Luke's thinking through of the situation despite his embarrassment.

"Understood, Sir. I understand that both Liskin's are still under sedation?" Luke asked with a slight tilt of the head, receiving a nod in response. "In that case, combining the report of the midichloridian counts and their agitation even under sedation I have a hunch about the cause and a possible solution."

"Oh?" Onasi asked.

"Yes, Sir. It's something that Leia and I had as children before we learned to shield it out. Our twin-bond could behave similar to this and if they are now truly identical and newly strong in the Force thanks to their situation, they might be overloading a stronger version of that bond with no idea how to deal with it. If that is the case, a simple mental shield should resolve the issue." Luke explained thoughtfully.

"Does sound plausible, check with medical before proceeding however." Onasi said with a nod, getting an answering nod from the Imperial Jedi officer sitting across from him. "Let me know if you develop anything from either the _Firebird_ crew or the prisoners, yes?"

"Of course, Sir." Luke rose, knowing a dismissal when he heard one. "With your permission, Sir?"

"Granted, off with you." Onasi said with a chuckle, waving one hand lightly as Luke turned and practically marched out of the room.

_Sickbay – HIMS Impetuous_

_Zaloriis System – Now_

The group of rebel commandos were seated in one of the smaller wards of the star destroyer's extensive sickbay, there to keep one of their own company why they waited for word of what was to become of them. Despite the massive damage to the ship the area they were in seemed almost pristine with little sign that anything as gauche as combat had intruded on the calm orderliness of the well-run shipboard hospital. Until earlier that morning the sickbay had been rather crowded and chaotic, but most of the patients had been transferred off the vessel already leaving just their Captain and her doppelganger behind.

A few ward nurses were moving around, straightening things up after the mass exodus several hours earlier and making excellent progress when the hatch opened. One of the nurses with a clear view immediately snapped to attention. "Attention on Deck, Skywalker arriving." was followed almost instantly by an immediately recognizable voice "As you were." as a very familiar figure, albeit one wearing the wrong uniform, strode in. The four rebels who weren't sedated stared, although Jaond and Scrish at least managed to keep their jaws from impacting the deck unlike Nik and Triselka.

Jaond was the first to recover, although you wouldn't know it from how silent he remained. Luke, however, just glanced at him with a faint smile as he waited patiently for the others to get over their initial reaction. "Yes, I know, I am the last person you probably expected to see wearing an Imperial uniform." he finally said when simple waiting wasn't causing the two youngest to recover.

Jaond then spoke, his gravelly voice incongruously quiet. "Alternate universe then." is all he said, causing the others to gawk at him and Luke to nod.

"Yes, actually." Luke replied, not seeming as surprised as the other at the giant being the first to figure things out. "While your ship is unfortunately a constructive loss due to the collapse of the hangar it was in, we were able to recover the data before the battle. Seeing myself in it was rather convincing evidence for the alternate universe theory, especially when combined with the two Liskins. Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment."

With that, Luke walked over to one of the doctor's, speaking in low tones that didn't carry at all. Behind him Scrish, Nik and Triselka were all still staring at the evidently unruffled Jaond, causing him to smirk very slightly. "Made sense, two Alani's was enough." he rumbled out. "Two Luke's proved it."

Meanwhile, Luke had finished his brief conversation with the doctor, and stepped up to Lieutenant Liskin's bedside, lightly resting one hand on her forehead and concentrating. Moments later, monitors that had been beeping in perfect concert started to deviate slightly and both figures seemed to still and truly relax under the sedation. Luke nodded and crossed the ward back to the others.

"It seems I was correct in my surmise as to the source of the.. anomalous medical condition of Lieutenant Liskin and your Captain Liskin." he said with a faint smile. "I placed a light shield on Lieutenant Liskin's mind, blocking the nascent force twin bond that had established itself between her and Captain Liskin." he explained, then glanced over at the sleeping twi'lek. "I would like to put the same on Captain Liskin to protect her as well in the event a single shield is insufficient upon waking."

"Ummmm, certainly, Sir." Triselka ventured, translating the light grunt Jaond gave at the same time.

Luke chuckled slightly. "No need for that, miss. You are not members of the Imperial Military, no reason you cannot call me just Luke." he said, even as he stepped beside Alani's bedside and repeated the action he had done for Lieutenant Liskin.

"Neither of their midichloridian counts are high enough for them to need full Jedi training, but when they awaken I will teach them how to maintain this shield on their own, at least until they become comfortable with their twin bond." he then explained, turning and clasping his hands behind his back. "In the meantime, you have been provisionally classified as civilian refugees, compensation will be arranged for the loss of your ship pending final disposition of your status. I've been tasked with escorting you to temporary quarters aboard _HIMS Executor_ while..." he trailed off as the four reacted to that. "What..."

"Death Squadron." came from Triselka, who looked a bit pale. "Vader?" came from Nik, who likewise had turned the color of fresh milk. Jaond just tilted his head slightly while Scrish looked rather angry.

"No, it's the 93rd Strike Task Force, centered around _HIMS Executor_, with Fleet Admiral Trevion Onasi in command." Luke explained, then chuckled. "Another of those alternate universe duplicates, I guess. The _Executor_ is one of our latest trio of capital ship classes, the fleet carrier of the three designs." when that didn't fully succeed in calming them down he paused for a second. "And if it's the name that's bothering you, it was drawn from a hat of unassigned Old Republic ship names by my mother, she preferred the second pick of _Endar Spire_, but that went to the second ship of the class instead since the Dac yards finished building her before Fondor was able to finish the Spire."

"Dac... you mean the _Executor_ was built by the Mon Calamari?" Triselka gasped, sounding rather surprised that the bogeyman of the Rebel Alliance was built there.

"They'd just finished expanding their yards to accommodate ships of this size, so unlike Kuat or Fondor they could begin construction immediately rather than having to wait for a slip to clear." Luke said. "Now, the orderlies will be able to handle transferring your Captain as well as Lieutenant Liskin, so shall we head to the shuttle? I've had your personal effects loaded already."

Triselka glanced at the others even as Jaond simply straightened up. "Alright I guess." she finally said as she looked back at Luke. Even as they departed the ward the orderlies were busily getting the two heavily-sedated twi'leks ready for transport as well on the same shuttle.

"When we get aboard _Executor_ we'll stop at sickbay so you know where it is and we can register you for visiting privileges with your Alani. Also, I'd like you all to get full work-ups as insurance against any medical problems." Luke said as they walked towards the launch bay where his shuttle was prepping for return to the _Executor_. "I'm sure none of us want any surprises, yes?"


	6. Chapter 6

_**The Other Side of Eternity**_

_**Chapter 6**_

_Imperial Star Destroyer Endar Spire_

_Zaloriis System - 3 days ago_

ES-876-12 sat in the far corner of the squadron ready room, suited up and with her helmet nestled in her lap and her dataslate resting on the small desk in front of her. The single most junior pilot aboard the _Endar Spire_, and nearly the youngest person period on the entire ship as well as being one of a grand total of ten women in the entirety of Death Squadron meant she spent most of her time alone, trying to keep from drawing notice and suffering the verbal slings and arrows of her 'comrades'.

If somebody had told her this would be her lot in the service just two years earlier, before she had signed on the dotted line and committed herself to following her families ancient tradition of naval service, she'd never have believed just how dreadful an experience it would be. Despite her skills, she had had to work twice as hard for none of the recognition of her male peers. And, to add insult to injury, she'd learned just how useless it was to complain about the constant innuendos and snide comments about her needing to spread her legs to get anywhere in 'this man's Navy.'

But she was still committed, still dedicated. The rebels had killed her parents with a cowardly bomb placed in a public thoroughfare. Had killed her grandfather in a cowardly ambush. Her family had served in the Navy for as far back as she'd ever been able to trace and she was damned if she wouldn't push past the obstacles and prove herself in their eyes. So ES-876-12 sat, waiting for the alert klaxon mounted on the bulkhead to sound. And tried her best to be inconspicuous, there in the corner where nobody ever cared to go.

The briefing had been interesting, if not particularly enlightening, but at least she knew what the mission would be. They'd launch as soon as they crossed the anomaly, search for the rebel ship, destroy any rebels spotted out here, determine their actual location, then return to Death Squadron to report. Simple, straightforward... the prospect of getting her first down payment on the debt of blood she owed to her terrorists who'd killed so many was rather exciting. The prospect made all the humiliations, all the hell almost seem worthwhile.

The klaxon finally sounded, the alert signal for the squadron to report to their TIE's to prepare for the transition through the anomaly. Rising with the rest of the pilots in her squadron, she settled her helmet in the crook of her arm in the accepted TIE pilot manner and followed the rest of her squadron, last as always, heading down the passageways to the launch bays and mentally going down the checklist of what she'd need to do as soon as she was inside her fighter. Almost vibrating with nervous energy and feeling her blood pounding, unaware that even the most seasoned veterans in the squadron always felt the same way right before a potential combat situation despite the sangfroid they all displayed so effortlessly, not realizing that she had the same game face on as the rest of the unit even if she was the smallest, and the only female, and the youngest.

The squadron reached the enclosed catwalk access passageway to the launch bay where their birds were queued up, hanging beneath them like so many bats on the rack conveyor launch system used for many years by the Imperial navy for their expendable fighters. As she reached the hatch leading to the access tube to her assigned TIE, ES-876-12 settled her helmet on her head, securing and sealing it and verifying that the suits life support system was online and operational before entering the tube. Settling into the seat, she attached the crash webbing just so as the automatic systems lowered the seat down into the TIE she had been assigned to for this mission. Once in place she followed procedure exactly according to the regulation manner she'd memorized, and commenced the standard preflight checklist to ensure that everything was fully operational in all respects. She might have been somewhat slower than a more experienced pilot, but her position as the very last member of the squadron did at least afford her the luxury of time as the squadron checks wouldn't commence until ES-876-1 was ready in his bird at the front of the queue.

It was while she was completing those checks that her comm announced that the ship was jumping, causing ES-876-12 to brace herself a bit as she always felt just a slight bit of queasiness upon jumping to lightspeed. This time, it was far worse than normal and only discipline kept her from losing her small lunch into her helmet with disastrous consequences. As the intense roiling queasiness faded, she took a deep breath and composed herself.

The squadron leader finally started the launch checks, their squadron was last in the launch queue regardless. A chorus of 'Ready' came from her fellow pilots, and she added her soft voice to the chorus when it was her turn. All systems were ready, everything was green. Moments later, the overhead conveyor started to move as the squadron's launch sequence began. Concentrating, she waited, watching a small countdown on her instrument panel as it ticked down to one.

The TIE in front of her abruptly dropped away and seconds later she followed, feathering the throttle at just the right moment to move up and to her leads right as dictated in the squadron's formation protocols. Seconds later she was at full thrust, the twin ion engines from which her fighter got it's name screaming as she shot through the black of space.

Her comm crackled to life once more, surprised voices at seeing another Star Destroyer quickly replaced with anger as it was confirmed that there were X-Wings opposing them, evidently launched by what was clearly a traitorous ship. After all, only the Rebellion used the Incom snubfighter, so they mad to be enemies... seconds after that the first shots were fired and space became pockmarked with crisscrossing ion trails and laser bolts.

ES-876-12 felt her heart racing as the first TIE exploded, caught in an expert scissoring maneuver between two of the black and gray X-Wings. She saw the insignia, but didn't have time in the wild melee to ponder what it meant as she stuck like glue to -11's wing, twin light lasers hammering away whenever she got lock on a target only for most of the shots to bounce off the heavy shields of her enemies.

Suddenly -11's TIE exploded, sending a fireball into the blackness of space. Acting purely on instinct, ES-876-12 wrenched her control yoke to the side right as a stream of ravening bolts of energy passed right where her cockpit would have been seconds earlier. She looked down at her display, attempting to form up with any other orphaned TIE rather than stay alone. Spotting one, right after it blasted one of the strange X-Wings into it's own short-lived fireball, she formed up quickly, only to react again by pure instinct, jerking up in a sudden hopping climb as another stream of energy passed beneath her, missing by less than a meter.

After two close shaves, ES-876-12 relaxed slightly and began following her instincts even more. She still remained on the other TIE's wing, providing support, but she took more shots of her own. The X-Wings that they were facing seemed to be focusing mostly on making repeated attack runs on the star destroyers rather than dogfighting any more than absolutely necessary which meant that the majority of the TIE's were still in action. These X-Wings, however, had much heavier shields than what her training had told her to expect allowing them to survive the furious fire relatively well.

Seconds passed to minutes as the deadly ballet continued. But then the music, so to speak, changed as new fighters that ES-876-12 identified from her recognition classes as old V-Wings appeared, and these were focusing solely on **them**.

TIE's and V-Wings now swirled together in furious dogfights, almost seeming choreographed by some hellish conductor. There were far more of the obsolete V's, but the TIE pilots were in the main far more skilled. But quantity had a quality of it's own, and slowly the TIE formations were cut down, squadrons decimated.

Throughout it all, as far as the TIE pilots were concerned, the fight between the heavy units was irrelevant, they lived or died at the hands of other snubfighters, not because of the killer whales pounding away. Thus it was a rather unpleasant surprise when ES-876-12's cockpit suddenly was filled with light as a massive explosion marked the near total destruction of the _Endar Spire_.

That blast seemed to be the cue for the V-Wings to turn in with even more ferocity, and there was less than a squadron of TIE's remaining. ES-876-12 had been staying stubbornly on the wing of the other TIE, but his charmed life soon ran out as a trio of V-Wings bracketed the pair of TIE's, leaving him with no way out as he was snuffed out, accompanied on his brief pyre by two of the V-Wings, one from his own shots and the other from ES-876-12's.

She started to look for a new partner, only to find to her dismay that she was the last TIE remaining. Luckily most of the enemy fighters had turned their attentions solely to the _Accuser_, leaving only a half dozen V-Wings still pursuing her.

Alone, outnumbered, and with no home base to return to, ES-876-12 went totally defensive, trying to kill as many of her enemies as she could but considering that the time that the six V-Wings took to kill her was that much less time that they were attacking _Accuser_. Not that a half dozen V-Wings would do much, but at this point any little victory was better than no victory at all.

She felt like she was in the zone, dodging and weaving like a madwoman by pure gut instinct. She had no idea why it was working so well, and expected every second to be her last. With six enemies all trying to kill her, it seemed that she was living a charmed existence for this last brief moment. Until she managed to nail one of them when it strayed into her sights, and a second and third moments later when a radical slew turn caused them to collide with each other as they had both become target fixated on her.

Half down, the battle moving further and further away from where the giants were slugging it out with each other. Two of the V-Wings chasing her broke off at that point to return to attacking the _Accuser_, leaving a single one bird dogging her. ES-876-12 tried to take advantage, turning to the offensive and attempting to move the battle back towards the main scrum but her adversary was too wily for that, evading her shots with contemptuous ease while forcing her to dodge and weave to avoid getting hit herself.

A gauge on her panel was glowing red at her, and a soft beeping noise was in her helmet, but to slow down was death, distraction was death... there was only fly and fight, no longer with any real hope of victory. Stubbornly she kept at it, wanting nothing more than to sell herself as dearly as possible. She had hated her squadron mates, hated how they sneered at her, how they tormented her, how they treated her like dirt on the bottom of their august boots. But she found she couldn't hate them now that they were dead, they were her fellows, for all that they despised her, they were her comrades, for all that they belittled her.

It was only a few seconds later, seconds that seemed like hours in the hyper-compressed time perception of furious combat, when the soft beeping became a continuous tone in ES-876-12's ear and the gauge seemed to glow even brighter. But there was no time to care about it, a frantic dodge barely evaded a blast from the enemy V-Wing, and a quick twist gave her a momentary respite as she got behind the enemy fighter. But that momentary triumph proved her last, as the screaming twin ion engines fell silent, her fuel completely exhausted as the short-legged TIE simply no longer had anything left to give.

ES-876-12 sagged in her command chair, expecting at any moment that the V-Wing would turn and finish her off as she coasted along at a cockeyed angle with no ability to dodge. Then her eyes went wide and an exultant shout erupted from her as an entire fleet of Imperial ships hypered in. Reinforcements had arrived at last, as it was utterly impossible for the Rebels to have managed to steal an entire fleet of capital ships. Her exultation peaked when she recognized the distinctive profile of an _Executor_ Super Star Destroyer in the midst of the fleet. The rebels were in for it now... Then her eyes bugged out and she fell silent, jaw dropping as she spotted more X-Wings launching from the newcomers.

Her view of the impossible situation outside was interrupted as the enemy V-Wing settled directly in front of her cockpit, lasers aimed straight for her. ES-876-12 forced herself to sit straight, looking death in the eye, but strangely the other fighter didn't fire. Her TIE had strictly short-range communication capability, and even that was offline with the rest of her systems as she floated there. From her vantage, she saw the stabbing beams from the flotilla obliterating _Accuser_, she saw the reflection of the explosions, and she stared at the fighter that was taunting her by not finishing her off.

Instead it simply kept pace with her drifting fighter, doing nothing more than that. ES-876-12's shoulders finally slumped completely as she saw a shuttle craft that looked nothing like the Lambda's she was accustomed to approaching. A light tractor beam connected with her coasting, powerless TIE, arresting her momentum with a bit of a jerk that, since the inertial compensation systems were also offline, shook her in the crash webbing. The V-Wing that had been hovering there in front of her turned and departed, as she found herself a helpless passenger in her own TIE being towed towards the _Executor_ clone that had somehow found itself in traitorous hands.

A soft beeping distracted her, her flight suits air reserves were reaching critical levels. With a grimace she overrode the alert and tried to relax as best she could, tried to slow her breathing down to stretch the few minutes of air she had left. Thankfully for her peace of mind they were swooping towards the underside of the faux _Executor_ quite quickly enough to get there before her suit ran completely out. As they approached she sighed, glancing down at the standard issue blaster pistol holstered at her side for a moment before shaking her head and looking back up, not even looking as she undid the clasps that held the pistol into its holster. She drew it then set it on top of her instrument panel after ejecting the power cell.

It was only a few more minutes, that seemed to drag on and on with ES-876-12 staring at the pistol on her instrument panel or out the canopy transparency and trying to keep from using up all of her air. Indeed, she wound up having to hold her breath as the air supply ran out just before they passed through the hangar's air shield. Cracking the upper hatch, she switched her helmet to outside supply and waited for pressure to return, still holding her breath. But it took a while, and by the time it did, she was passed out, slumped in her seat supported only by the crash webbing as the combination of hypoxia and a total adrenaline crash combined to put her completely under.

_Sick Bay – HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – 3 Days Ago_

When ES-876-12 opened her eyes again it was to an unfamiliar ceiling, albeit one in familiar colors. Despite the mask over her nose and mouth and the IV set into her arm she wasn't strapped down or restrained in any way, and was wearing what appeared to be a standard Imperial issue hospital gown. In fact, everything around her looked like identical to the sickbay of the _Endar Spire_, right down to the arrangement of the monitors and the various bits of equipment that beeped rhythmically while keeping tabs on her.

She turned her head, looking towards the sealed hatch, then the other way, and found she was alone in the room. She tried to sit up, but gave it up as moving just made her headache worse. Her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton balls and her head was pounding from a massive headache that seemed to pulse with her heartbeat in time with the monitors.

She was beginning to imagine that she must have somehow been picked up by Death Squadron when the door opened and a pair of aliens in jarringly proper Imperial uniforms walked in. One, a bothan female, remained at the door as the other, a Rodian wearing doctors' insignia, briskly reviewed the monitors.

"Well, you were very lucky to survive that, young lady." the Rodian commented finally, turning with his dataslate poised. "Mild hypoxia, mild dehydration, stress and shock reactions; all consistent with running yourself out of life support." he shook his head then looked at her. "Name?"

ES-876-12 opened her mouth to respond then snapped it shut, remembering regulations, and said shortly. "My designation is ES-876-12." in as monotone a voice as she could manage through the oxygen mask.

The Rodian rolled his eyes and shook his head. "That's nice, but what is your name?"

"ES-876-12" she replied in the same monotone.

"So your parents named you that string of letters and numbers?" came idly from the bothan standing by the hatch as she shook her head a bit. The doctor gave the bothan a bit of a hard look but didn't comment, instead making notes on his dataslate.

Silence, ES-876-12 didn't bother to respond although she did flush a little at the slightly patronizing tone. The bothan chuckled and approached the bed, even as the Rodian removed the oxygen mask in silence.

"Look, while that may be your 'designation', we both know it's not your name." the bothan said, and got silence in response, the woman on the bed staring up at the ceiling and refusing to even acknowledge her presence. She chuckled and shook her furred head. "Suit yourself." she finally said, voice sounding disappointed. "Would be nice to have an easy one for a change, but if you insist."

The bothan paused for a moment, then shrugged and turned to depart. The doctor shook his head and remained. "You are probably extremely thirsty." he said, stepping to a small cabinet and taking out a bottle of water, which he set on the tray next to the bed. "Without knowing your medical history, I cannot safely prescribe any pain medications for your headache. Do you have any known allergies?"

Silence, not even a head shake or nod, and the doctor sighed, making a notation on his dataslate. "Then we'll have to wait for the results of the blood work, do not want to risk an adverse allergic reaction." he paused, looking over at her, his gaze almost begging her to not put herself through what he knew full well must be an excruciating headache, but she kept her silence and continued staring at the ceiling. With a slight sigh he made a final note on his chart. "If you change your mind, there's a call button near your right hand."

With that he left, allowing her to slump a bit, lifting one hand to rub at her temple in a vain attempt to massage away the headache before picking up the water bottle and taking a drink, sighing slightly as the cottonmouth feel went away.

_Intelligence Section - HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – 2 Days Ago_

"So far that's all we've gotten out of her. Medical flatly refused the suggestion to continue withholding pain medication after their tests came up clear, which was the idea all along to try and create a 'good cop, bad cop' sort of scenario with Dr Sreek as the 'good' cop, but it didn't work.." the bothan intelligence officer reported.

"Interesting, a rather stubborn young woman, Torski?" asked her fellow intelligence officer.

"Very much so, but that leaves us in a bit of a bind. Unless we can get her to start talking we'll have to classify her as a full up enemy combatant, and if the doctors are right, she's barely old enough to enlist in the first place." Lieutenant Torski J'nack said a bit grimly.

"But the fact remains she shot down at least five snubfighters in that engagement, with damage to several others." came from another section of the room.

"True, but that doesn't mean I have to like it, Kelly." Torski replied.

"Well, we'll go with the information we've got for the briefing and let the Admiral decide how to proceed from there." Kelly replied, getting nods from the others in the room.

_Sickbay – HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – Now_

ES-876-12 laid on her bed in the same isolation ward she'd been left in for the last few days. Every time that bothan came in with the doctor she tensed up, bracing herself for yet more questioning and fearing that at any moment she'd find herself being taken off to be tortured into giving information, or the doctor would succumb to the bothan's requests to inject interrogation drugs into her. So far, despite being tempted a time or two, she'd managed to keep from saying anything beside her designation, she'd even kept from reading or watching the holodisplay in the room for fear that that damnable bothan would figure something out from her reading or viewing habits. As a result she was bored out of her mind, to the point where even being unhooked from the IV hadn't been as bright an occasion as she'd thought it would be.

The hatch slid open at precisely the usual time, and ES-876-12 mentally braced herself for yet another round of questions from the bothan and doctor. Instead, she found herself starting at someone no Imperial could fail to recognize from the 'Wanted' posters. . . clad in an immaculately tailored, regulation perfect Imperial Navy uniform. "Wh..." she lost her composure for a moment at the sheer incongruity of it all, then forced her mouth to shut and glared determinedly at the ceiling.

"No, you are not hallucinating, ES-876-12 was it?" Luke Skywalker was a Tatooine farm boy. Imperial Intelligence had located him without the slightest trouble once they knew who they were looking for. There was **no way** Luke Skywalker could have that upper-crust Coruscanti accent. "But you also aren't where you think you are."

She continued to stare at the ceiling, mind reeling. The Rebels had _never_ been capable of psy-ops on this level, and certainly not for a mere TIE pilot. So this had to be real, but how was that even remotely possible?

Luke chuckled softly and leaned against a bulkhead. "I assure you, there are no answers scribed on the overhead, unless the question is 'what conduit is here'. In which case you'd be an engineer, not a pilot. The medics want their isolation ward back, ES-876-12." Unlike the others, he said her designation without any trace of mockery or irony. "So we'll talk on our way to your new accommodations. Or at least I'll talk, and I hope what I have to say will convince you we aren't necessarily enemies."

ES-876-12 looked up sharply, then sighed and rose to her feet. Sure, she could resist and just lay there and be difficult, but it wouldn't accomplish anything. Stubborn she might be, but she wasn't stupid and if half the stories circulating around the ranks about Luke Skywalker were true she'd not stand a chance.

The hatch was still open, and Luke gestured for her to exit before him. "We've determined that the hyperspace anomaly you crossed through is a dimensional gateway of some sort. Thus, you are now in a universe where galactic history has gone quite differently." He announced without preamble. ES-876-12 froze in momentary shock. That was the most stupidly implausible. . . except it also made an insane sort of sense. "So allow me to introduce myself properly. Lieutenant Commander Luke Skywalker, commanding officer of the 9301st Composite Starfighter Wing, Imperial Fleet Starfighter Corps. Also a Master of the Imperial Jedi Order, and for my sins current heir to the Imperial throne."

Luke Skywalker as future Emperor. She couldn't even begin to process the absurdity of **that**. He gently reached out and cupped her elbow, guiding her forward as the left the sickbay. Perfect court manners, a detached fragment of her mind noted. "In this world, we are at war with a Rebel threat just as in yours, although for rather different reasons - or so it seems. We'd like to learn as much as we can before we make any judgments about the situation."

He fell silent for a few minutes as they walked down the endless corridors of the massive ship, then paused as if he'd just thought of something. "Oh, and before I forget. I'm quite impressed with how well you flew. I had the chance to test fly your fighter - it's called a TIE/ln, yes? - and it's definitely a handful, especially wearing a full pressure suit. Flies rather well, actually, although calling it short-legged is exaggerating its range considerably."

"It's not that bad, keep a nitrogen pressurization at 20 millibars, makes it far easier to handle." ES-876-12 said without thinking. "And there's enough range for our normal mission profile."

"Oh? Our Kappa-3's have at least an hours more endurance on them and have a better electronics fit to boot with superior performance. Probably more expensive though, come to think about it. On-board sensors and communications gear aren't that good either, I thought." Luke replied with that charming smile of his, not commenting at all on how she was finally talking.

"Well, it's not a recon bird, just a pure snubfighter mostly intended for shooting down enemy fighters. And you call V-wings Kappa-3's?" ES-876-12 asked, looking up at the taller man beside her.

"No, although the Kappa's are descended from the old Nimbus Alpha V-Wing's. That was a planetary militia unit you were tangling with." Luke replied with a smile. "Still capable snubs in their own right even if they're getting long in the teeth, so to speak. I saw that the TIE was made by Sienar? Raith is going to be rather upset it doesn't have, I dunno, diamond-boron armor, a .25 hyperdrive, cryogenic-cooled rotary turbolasers and a cloaking device, but he'll get over it I'm sure."

ES-876-12 blinked at that, then started chuckling at the mental image of a TIE fighter that cost more than the _Executor_. After a moment Luke joined in, eyes twinkling a bit. "Look, do you really prefer to be called ES-876-12 or would you mind terribly telling me your name so I don't feel like I'm mistaking a lovely young lady for a droid?"

ES-876-12 froze for a second as she realized she'd started talking, her shoulders slumping a bit as she looked down, only to find a finger lightly lifting her chin back up. "There is no need to be ashamed or embarrassed, we aren't going to torture you or abuse you in any way." he said softly, the sincerity in his voice obvious. "What is your name."

ES-876-12 paused a second longer, looking up into those dazzling blue eyes, then responded softly. "Flight Cadet Arisa Onasi."


	7. Chapter 7

_**The Other Side of Eternity**_

_**Chapter 7**_

_Flag Office – HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – Now_

Lieutenant (Junior-Grade) Markus Rile looked up from his workstation outside Fleet Admiral Onasi's office as the outer hatchway slid open, then lifted an eyebrow slightly as a young woman wearing a uniform devoid of any insignia whatsoever stepped through, followed by the familiar form of Lieutenant Commander Skywalker. Who was wearing one of _those_ smiles.

"May I help you, Sir?" he said politely, rising to salute only to be cheerfully waved down before he could make it to his feet.

"Sure can, Markus. The Admiral wanted me to report to him as soon as I learned anything interesting from any of the folks from the other side. Mind letting us in without giving him enough warning to utterly embarrass me with a salute?" Luke said easily, smiling at the other officer who chuckled, obviously rather comfortable with Luke despite the vast gulf in both rank and social status.

"No can do, Sir. Strict standing orders that I am to always make sure he is aware when any member of the Skywalker clan is anywhere near his office hatch. And if I may be so bold, Sir, I think you enjoy this little game of yours as much as he does."

"Markus! Not in front of a lady!" Skywalker said, acting affronted but the grin gave it away. At his side, Arisa chuckled as well, shaking her head at the effortless Skywalker charm. "And just this once? I'll even tell him that I bullied you into it with dire threats of." he cleared his throat, lifted his nose, and in his snootiest voice intoned "Dire Imperial Displeasure."

"He won't believe you, Sir." Markus replied, even as he rose to cross to the hatch and rapped on the coaming smartly. Behind him Luke chuckled, immediately dropping the act, and patiently waited while beside him Arisa was getting more and more nervous. An admiral?

"He'll see you now, Sir." Markus said after stepping out of the office, stepping aside from the now opened hatch.

Inside, Admiral Onasi had indeed risen to his feet, but this time Luke started the salute even before he crossed the hatch and managed to beat the older man to the punch. "You wanted me to report to you as soon as I learned anything, Admiral." he said with a grin.

Admiral Onasi chuckled and released his own salute with a shake of his head. "I did indeed." he said, seating himself once more behind his desk and turning his attention to the young woman standing beside Luke.

Luke gently pushed Arisa forward a bit. "Admiral, this is rather... sensitive material, I intend to ask Lieutenant Rile to clear your appointments for a few hours." he paused a beat, just long enough for Admiral Onasi and Arisa to both look at him, and he grinned a bit. "Fleet Admiral Trevion Onasi, it is my distinct privilege to introduce Flight Cadet Arisa Onasi. Yet more proof, sir, that we are dealing with an alternate reality." Luke concluded, turning serious at that.

Silence reigned, as the Admiral and Cadet both froze at the same time, looked at each other for a long moment, then both turned and gave a now smirking Luke nearly completely identical glares, even as he stepped back through the hatch and keyed it shut leaving the two behind in privacy. Luke chuckled as he turned to the gaping lieutenant seated at his station.

"Clear the Admiral's schedule for the next few hours, Markus." Luke said, grinning at the flag lieutenant. "And please don't go talking about just why."

Markus had heard the entire thing, as the hatch had been open the entire time, and simply nodded in agreement as he proceeded to do just that. "Aye aye, Sir." was all he said.

_Hyperspace Anomaly_

_Zaloriis System – Both Sides of Gate – Now_

The crushed wreckage that had once been a battered yet battle-ready YT-2000 floated in space at the very center of the anomaly, indeed precisely where the sensor data from _HIMS Impetuous_ had shown it to have emerged. A team of engineers had already gone over the wreckage to remove any working computer systems that might contain incriminating data, and a pair of salvage shuttles had used their tractor beams in presser mode to crush the wreckage even further until it was all but unrecognizable. Only about ten percent of the actual wreckage remained when the engineers were done, but it was more than enough to be recognizable as a YT-2000.

Beside the wreckage floated a flat black probe droid which had attached itself via a network of micro-filament tethers to the wreckage. Even as the last of the salvage shuttles moved out of range, the probe droid shimmered and vanished as it activated it's single blind stygian crystal cloaking device and vanished. Thirty seconds later, the wreckage vanished as well in a burst of Cronau radiation.

Meanwhile, the salvage shuttles moved to the corralled masses of shattered wreckage from the two star destroyers that floated nearby as suited engineers carefully crawled over them inspecting them for signs of actual turbolaser or missile damage as opposed to blast damage from failing reactors and exploding fuel tanks. Again, any computers or other systems that might give the game away were carefully separated from the rest. They had plenty of time to do the job right, as the decision had been made to not send through this wreckage for another five standard days.

On the far side of the anomaly, the wreckage appeared with a flash of Cronau radiation. No eye could make out the rapidly disappearing micro-filament tethers as they were rapidly retracted into the body of the cloaked probe droid which nudged itself away from the wreckage, drifting well clear.

The entirety of Death Squadron, centered around the looming _Executor_ and joined by the local garrison floated in deep space mere kilometers from the anomaly. Within moments a flight of TIE fighters swooped close to the crushed and barely identifiable remains of the _Firebird_ followed shortly after by a lone Lambda shuttle. The cloaked probe droid drifted further and further away, vectoring away from the wreckage. Small impulses from the drives adjusted the course to ensure clearance but soon the probe was far enough away to no longer require any movement and settled in to simply observe. The plan was for the cloaked droid to remain in position for five days, until the sanitized star destroyer wreckage would be sent through with additional probe droids, and at that time hyper back using the arrival to mask its own departure.

_9301__st__ Composite Starfighter Wing HQ Office – HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – Now_

Even on a massive supercarrier like _Executor_ office space was at a premium. Most of the internal volume was taken up by the massive hangars and support systems, after all, for over two thousand snubfighters organized into four full snubfighter groups. The 9301st Composite Starfighter Wing was the first wing of 93.1 Starfighter Group and carried a full roster of the new Incom T-65C X-Wing as they had been the operational test group for the new model of the Imperial Navy's standard multi-role snubfighter. Traditionally the Wing command offices featured the unit crests of the four component snubfighter squadrons decorating the bulkhead opposite the entry hatch, but in the 9301st that was not quite accurate, over thirty unit crests decorated that same bulkhead, with four of them larger than the others. The 9301st was a truly composite wing, originally an ad hoc wing put together in the fires of battle at Fourth Alderaan from the ragged survivors of many different wings and now a permanent 'elite' unit.

But beyond that the office was almost completely conventional, any Imperial pilot could walk in and know without even looking where everything would be and navigate the cramped space with their eyes closed and not bump into a single thing. Small desks were clustered around the compartment, wall-mounted computer systems were placed just so, there was the obligatory 'greenery' that struggled to survive the indifference of those who were supposed to water it yet who always wondered just who's bright idea it had been to require all wing offices in the Navy to maintain two potted plants. Rumor was it had been an Ithorian's bright idea that had somehow made it into regulations and was now so firmly entangled in the inchoate naval tradition that it was now impossible to do away with. Two hatches lead to compartments deeper inside the wing office, one to a conference room and the other to the wing commander's personal office where he could make war on the epic mountain of paperwork that was every commanding officers bane in relative privacy.

Luke's office itself was nothing remarkable, just a cookie cutter replica of countless other wing commander offices throughout the Imperial Navy. There were some personal touches, a holo of Stacey on a shelf, a few mementos from his family and a rather tasteful bit of holosculpture in a corner. Here too the insidious hand of naval regulation had dictated Potted Plant One (1) and so, perched in a corner was a single standard-issue potted plant. The office seemed cramped with just Luke in it, with his four visitors it seemed positively crowded.

It didn't help that the two Twi'leks were still glaring at each other. They had _consciously_ come to terms with the fact that they were from different universes and hence they had no intellectual reason to hate each other, but they were so remarkably similar that they effortlessly got under each others skin. Nik, standing between them in part to keep them from bickering even more, was looking increasingly harassed as little sniping comments continued to fly back and forth. Off to the side, Triselka was forcing herself to keep from chuckling at the interplay.

Luke, on the other hand, looked downright amused. The two Alani's squabbling reminded him irresistibly of his two youngest brothers when they were mad at each other, or for that matter of the way he and Leia had squabbled as children. There was no real heat to the barbs, they were just the sorts of things sisters would hurl at each other.

"Alright, despite what you may think, I did have a reason for asking you four to meet me here." Luke finally said, interrupting the latest round of needling barbs much to the relief of Nik. "Captain and Lieutenant Liskin, I am currently maintaining the force shield required to keep your twin-bond from overloading you like it had been. I will be scheduling several sessions with each of you to teach you how to erect and maintain it on your own. It's a set of techniques that even non-Force Sensitives can use, in your case they should be marginally more effective as while your midichloridian levels aren't up to levels which would require full training you are marginally sensitive enough to have full control over your own mental shielding with instruction."

Both Alani's nodded, almost in unison, then just as they looked like they would start bickering over who would master the technique first Luke interrupted them by continuing to speak. "As for you, Triselka, you have several options. Your midichloridian count is both high and stable enough to warrant additional training although that is no guarantee that you'll ever pass your trials. Jaond tells me that you are quite skilled at working with computers as well. I contacted Master Kenobi and he indicated that it shouldn't be difficult to arrange for you to both study as an initiate and potentially a padawan as well as attending university level computer classes."

Before she could reply Luke held up his hand. "Let me tell you all of your options before you decide." he said kindly, causing the young woman to subside a bit. "You have three, actually. First, you can focus your studies purely on Jedi training. You could become a full-fledged Jedi within ten years if you worked hard. Second, you can focus your studies purely on academics. I understand the Coruscant Imperial University's computer science department is quite well regarded. Third, you can study both at once - which would be a serious challenge indeed, but by no means impossible. Please consider carefully what you wish to do, you won't need to have an answer until you arrive on Coruscant."

Triselka nodded then. "I understand." she said softly, although she was still beaming broadly at the thoughts running through her head. Nik looked over at her, and is is traditional for younger males in any universe promptly stuck his foot in his mouth as he muttered "And she still is the only person I've ever met who can manage to burn water when she tries to cook." earning him a pair of simultaneous thwaps from the two twi'leks who were still flanking him and a stuck out tongue from Triselka.

Luke chuckled, having been the victim of Young Male Syndrome a time or two himself. "As for you, Nik, first I've been asked to pass along the thanks from the _Impetuous_ medbay for your assistance in repairing their caf dispenser and upgrading their auto-cooking unit so that it plays music instead of merely beeps when it's finished. The nurses would really like to know how to change the musical selection, however."

Nik flushed slightly, but before he could say anything Luke held up one hand to stop him and continued. "While I am sure that you only meant to provide a measure of entertainment with that upgrade, 'Double B Booty' is not suitable for a medbay break area no matter how popular it is. Before you depart for Coruscant you'll be returning to _Impetuous_ to change the musical selection to something more appropriate. That said, your midichloridian count is more than sufficient to merit an invitation to the Temple to be trained in the Jedi arts." Luke paused for a moment, his voice stern but a slight twinkle in his eyes. " As a Jedi Master, it is my solemn duty to advise you that it is not acceptable to make use of the scomp-link bypass on the Temple droids to reprogram them in any way, nor is it acceptable to utilize the Temple workshop to perform unapproved upgrades. Those droid repair benches are strictly for official use only. Am I understood?"

All Nik could manage was a slight nod in response.

_Council Chambers - Jedi Temple_

_Coruscant - Now_

Faraway on Coruscant at that very moment an Imperial Jedi Council Meeting was going on, a room full of Jedi Masters seated in the historic council chambers on the top floor of the Jedi Temple. Seated in his rather comfortable conformable chair a mostly silver haired human Master was listening intently when for no apparent reason his eyebrows suddenly both soared to his hairline. At a questioning glance from the head of the council circle, Master Yan Dooku sighed and just made a slight gesture dismissing the silent question as if it were unimportant, and thus not informing the rest of the tiny little tremor in the Force he had felt. As the meeting progressed he brought up a set of vacation options on his dataslate, pondering how best to enjoy a few days of peace and quiet before what he had sensed came to pass.

_Flag Office – HIMS Executor_

_Zaloriis System – Now_

Markus was absent from his desk when Luke returned, a small neat sign was set on his desk declaring he was off-duty and would return in 12 hours. A Marine was stationed by the hatch who lifted his hand to knock, only pausing when Luke held up his hand and shook his head. "No, allow me Private... Wilkins is it? Welkins?" Luke chuckled, shaking his head some more. "Infiltrating your own branch of the military as a private? You are supposed to be on vacation."

"I am on vacation, sir, six month leave." came the drawled response from the uniformed figure smirking at him from beside the hatch.

"You do realize that your dad is going to have words with you, your mom is going to chew you out, and I shudder to think how Mara will react when she finds out." Luke pointed out as he walked towards the hatch. "You do realize that you'll give the Intel folks collective heart failure?"

"Part of the reason I did it, Luke, got to keep them on their toes. I think Hido was onto me, but couldn't prove anything so he just kept an eye on me, good kid." 'Welkins' replied with a lazy grin.

"I'll let Ysanne know that one of her people at least is on top of his game." Luke replied as he reached the hatch, grinned and opened it up, as the Force indicated it was safe to do so. As he did so, he reached out and grabbed the Marine and hauled him in with him. "Lieutenant Commander Skywalker and a supposedly vacationing scalawag reporting as ordered, Admiral." he said with a grin, snapping off a salute as he did so.

Admiral Onasi looked up from the couch, where he was seated with Arisa, raising an eyebrow, chuckling and pointedly not returning the salute right away. "And you've probably already become depressingly familiar with Luke's alleged sense of humor." he said casually, it being rather apparent that the two had bonded rather well in the hours they'd been together, two wounded souls recognizing kindred ties despite the fact that they came from literally universes apart. "And I'm not sure if you've heard of Boba Fett on your side of the anomaly, but that young man cherishing illusions that he managed to pull one over me by disguising himself as a Marine private, and currently looking mighty surprised that I saw through him so easily, is the one and only Major Boba Fett, Imperial Marine Corps Special Operations Branch."

Arisa had been smiling until her 'grandfather' casually introduced her to the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, well at least her version of the galaxy, who she gawked at. "B... Boba Fett? THE Boba Fett? The bounty hunter who's never missed a target Boba Fett?"

Boba, who had been starting to preen a bit, suddenly looked horrified. "I'm a WHAT? Dad would KILL me if I ever became a bounty hunter, not to mention what MOM would do to me." he said, as Luke guffawed beside him, slapping the flabbergasted Marine on the back. "You aren't helping, Luke!" he snapped, crossing his arms and looking mightily put upon, first Onasi had seen through his clever disguise, and now he had discovered his alter ego was a bounty hunter of all things. Fett's were meant to be warriors, not carrion birds.

Arisa was looking shocked, while Admiral Onasi settled a hand on her shoulder. "The Fett's, at least in this reality, are highly respected soldiers and uphold the best of the Mandalorian tradition." he explained gently. "Not bounty hunters."

"Oh, ummm, sorry Major Fett." Arisa said a bit meekly.

Boba merely waved it off, it wasn't in his nature to blame the bearer of bad news for the nature of the bad news, and finding out that he had an alter ego who was a bounty hunter of all things sincerely annoyed him.

Luke decided that it was very likely that Admiral Onasi would spill the beans about Leia and his counterparts kissing, so on the very valid theory that it was better to manage the embarrassing story one self rather than letting somebody else frame it for you he said "Well, at least you don't have a sister who your alter ego kissed like they were going out or something."

Boba grinned, welcoming the distraction although it didn't lesson the annoyance one single iota. "What? Your alter ego is into incest?"

"Or he might not have known!" Luke found himself defending his counterpart. "And it's not like I would ever do something like that! You're the one kissing MY sister, every chance you get." a pause, then a smirk "So, should I tell Mara to start calling you Major Bounty Hunter?"

Boba promptly slugged Luke on the arm, looking outraged even as Luke laughed. Things seemed doomed to degenerate into a wrestling match between them when Admiral Onasi intervened.

"Boys." he said a bit repressively, as Arisa boggled a bit at his side watching the pair.

Both Boba and Luke promptly shut up and stopped the tussle, although they both were still grinning as they turned back to face the pair of Onasi's.

"And that, Arisa, is how you shut those two up when they get on a tear." Admiral Onasi promptly said to Arisa, smiling slightly and eliciting a chuckle from the young woman. Both Luke and Boba promptly harrumphed but didn't contradict the older man.

Luke smirked a bit then as he straightened up, transitioning smoothly from his 'off duty' relative casualness with a man who was in many ways a brother next to him and the man who was more or less his honorary uncle in front of him back to his 'duty' posture. "Admiral, did you receive the message I sent prior to my inviting myself in?"

"Actually no." Admiral Onasi said, looking over at his desk for a moment and starting to rise, only to stop at a slight head shake from Luke.

"I didn't include any details in the message, Sir. And the message is actually just as much for Ms Onasi as for you." he turned his attention to the young woman then, who looked rather curious about what other upheaval was heading her way. "The medics completed running the full spectrum of tests, and I'm happy to say you are in near perfect health." Luke paused, and Admiral Onasi's eyes narrowed a bit as he realized that the younger man was gleefully indulging his dramatic side. "One of the results, however, was flagged for my attention as the senior Imperial Jedi assigned to this formation. Are you familiar with midichloridians, Ms Onasi?"

Arisa shook her head. "No, actually." she replied, obviously rather puzzled, while beside her Admiral Onasi's face slowly broke into a proud smile.

"Midichloridians are microorganisms which live inside all advanced cellular life." Luke explained. "In the past it was thought that they were actually responsible for allowing Jedi to access the Force, but later discoveries have pretty solidly disproved that idea. We now believe that they live on Force energy, although it remains unclear if they are parasitic, commensalistic, or symbiotic. Practically speaking, they are useful as a rough gauge of Force sensitivity. While there are some minor anomalies that I'll get into shortly, your midichloridian count is more than sufficient to qualify you for an invitation to the temple for Jedi training."

Arisa looked over at Admiral Onasi who was smiling. "That, ummm, so that means I'm a Jedi?" she asked, sounding rather confused since such things were not really covered in Imperial education on the side of the anomaly she was from.

Luke sensed the confusion and wondered about it, but instead smiled as well "Indeed you have the potential to be one, with training. The anomaly I was speaking of, incidentally, is that we detected a slight but gradual increase in the midichloridian count. Older techniques would not have detected this but there have been many advances in the science involved. I believe that there was a Force Block placed upon your sensitivity that only recently has mostly been lifted. Tell me, have you ever gotten nauseous or disoriented during a hyperspace transition?"

Arisa nodded slightly "All the time, right when we make the jump and again when we leave, and it was really bad when we crossed through the anomaly." she confirmed in a slightly shaky voice.

With a smile, Luke nodded. "Then it was the type of block I'm familiar with, the transitions between normal and hyperspace stresses the block. Evidently the dimensional transition caused by the anomaly mostly broke it. With your permission, Ms Onasi, I can remove the last vestiges of it, should at the very least keep you from getting sick on your way to Coruscant."

"Coruscant?" Admiral Onasi asked, furrowing his brow slightly.

"Yes, Sir. We have two other potential Jedi amongst the civilian refugees, along with your granddaughter here. Also, I would really like to get the Liskins to the temple for counseling in dealing with their twin bond, especially with the continued aggression they are showing towards each other." Luke said, looking sympathetic.

Admiral Onasi nodded "Well, I know that we'll be on station here at least until the 11th arrives." he said.

Luke nodded in response. "I'm sure there's no good reason to rush things, Sir. With your permission I'll inform the Temple that they'll be seeing three new recruits, assuming Ms Onasi agrees, and give them an expected ETA."


End file.
